


InfanTale

by V0ID115



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Cute, Gen, InfanTale, No Angst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-13
Updated: 2016-06-20
Packaged: 2018-05-20 03:58:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 28,195
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5990938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/V0ID115/pseuds/V0ID115
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Moved on to new projects. If you want to read this anyway, go ahead.<br/> </p><p>LIKE ANYTHING RELATED TO UNDERTALE, EVERYTHING HERE IS A SPOILER.</p><p>The re-telling of Undertale, but coming from a... shorter perspective. Like the source material, small changes have monumental consequences. Does NOT contain Angst. Leans toward a more adorable side of the game.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Fallen Down

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Huggertale](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/175606) by Majart (Tumblr)/NordlysFisk (Reddit). 



> Disclaimer: All IP (Intellectual Property) ranging from scenarios or characters mentioned in this fanfiction belongs to Toby Fox.
> 
> This Fanfiction is inspired by Huggertale and a different take on the story, based on the fandom's "AU" culture, I decided to give my own take on the series and try to produce something for the franchise. This is a pilot episode and depending on the feedback, I intend to continue and improve it. All feedback is appreciated and encouraged.
> 
> Without further ado, I hope you enjoy it.

It was a long drop, but thankfully, a soft bed of golden flowers stopped their fall. After a while, the child wakes up. A bit startled, they look around, wondering where they are. It was a dark room inside some sort of cave. After pondering what to do, they hesitantly entered the door to the next room.

It's as dark as the previous room, but they can see a patch of grass with a sole golden flower on it. As they walk closer, the flower finally greets the child, slightly startling them.

"Howdy! I'm FLOWEY! FLOWEY the Flower!" They bopped happily as the curious child stared wide eyed.

"Wow! A talking flower!" The kid excitedly replied "How come you can talk?" They crouched to approach the flower.

"Well, by your looks, you must be new here to the underground. Well someone has to teach you how things work down here, so lil' old me will have to do" Flowey replied, as they paid attention.

"See that heart? That is your SOUL, the very culmination of your being." Flowey explained, as the child watched their SOUL manifesting itself. "Your SOUL starts off weak, but it can grow strong if you obtain a lot of LV. What's LV? LOVE, of course!" Flowey continued.

"You want some LOVE, don't you?" Flowey asked. "YES!" They excitedly reply.

"Down here, LOVE is shared through these, 'friendliness pellets'." Flowey said as he emitted white pellets out of his body. "Go! Grab as many as you can" He said as the pellets slowly hovered towards the child. Almost instantaneously, they skipped happily towards the pellets in an attempt to please their new friend, but they were met with an unpleasant surprise. As the excited kid made contact with the seeds, they slashed them all over, wounding the child with several cuts.

" **YOU IDIOT**!" Flowey said, now wearing a near demonic face as they stared with swollen eyes, shedding some tears.

"W-why are you doing this?" The kid innocently asked, trying to retreat, but finding themselves too weak to do so.

" **WHY? WHY WOULD ANYONE PASS UP AN OPPORTUNITY LIKE THAT? IN THIS WORLD. IT'S 'KILL OR BE KILLED'!** " Flowey replied, laughing maniacally, surrounding the child with a ring of bullets.

" **DIE!** " He shouted one last time as the death ring slowly approached the now sobbing child, as panic filled their soul.

However, at the very last second, the ring of bullets vanished, and their wounds faded. Before Flowey could comprehend what happened, a fire blast blew him away, severely startling the kid. Shortly after, a tall monster with white fur approached. It had a face which resembled a goat, but instead, it was more smooth looking and its horns were mere stumps, with equally harmless feeble fangs. It was wearing a purple dress with an emblem on it. 

"What a terrible creature, torturing such a poor, innocent youth..." The tall monster said as they looked confused and frightened, wanting to retreat, but unsure how. "Ah, do not be afraid, my child. I am TORIEL, caretaker of the RUINS. I pass through this place every day to see if anyone has fallen down. You are the first human to come here in a long time, although I never have seen such a young human down here." Toriel said, curiously scanning the infant. They looked confused, but a lot less reluctant to her presence.

"But, that doesn't matter. Come! I will guide you through the catacombs. This way." She said, walking towards the door leading to the next room. The youngster, still looking a bit dumbfounded, stared a bit before quickly rushing behind Toriel.

* * *

 

As they enter the next room, Toriel waits them to stop in front of her before talking again. “Welcome to your new home, innocent one. Allow me to educate you in the operation of the RUINS." She said as she solved a pressure plate puzzle. "The RUINS are full of puzzles, ancient fusions between diversions and door-keys. Be careful when solving them, as some may be dangerous." Toriel said as the child observed her. They seemed slightly anxious, but did not question when she asked them to continue following her.

Toriel walked at a somewhat slow pace, trying to not leave them behind and making them feel comfortable, as they were still looking a bit hesitant. The kid looked around at the room, as it was a bit bigger than the previous ones. They didn't pay much attention before, but the ruins were completely purple. Only the occasional road would break the never ending shades of purple. The ruins were also obviously very worn, but surprisingly clean for an abandoned place. Occasional moss aside, you'd never guess those were actual ruins of something.

"So, for the sake of learning how to solve the puzzles, you'll solve the next one. Don't worry, I labelled the switches you need to use." She said, positioning herself to give them more space to walk around and go towards the switch. Like a curious child, they crossed the small bridge over the ponds and went towards the switch, but before they could do anything, they both realized something she overlooked. "Oh my... I... I did not take in account you may not reach it. Do you want me to-" She was talking, but before she could even begin to walk towards the switch, the child jumped and managed to press it. They stared at Toriel, waiting for a response for their achievement. Toriel, not missing a beat quickly replied. "Splendid! Want to try the next one?"

The kid, now with a victorious smile, nodded at her and quickly hopped towards the next part of the room. After a short examination of the switches, they went for the second labelled switch and after another jump, managed to press it as well, deactivating the spikes.

"Wonderful!" She cheered as she clasped her hands. "Err... I'm sorry about the switches, I'll try to make it easier for your use in the future. For now, let us go!" Toriel said slightly embarrassed from her carelessness, but happy watching the child brimming with pride as they quickly ran after her. Still shy, but they seemed to be getting more relaxed in her presence.

Both of them entered the next room. Were it not for the different objects, a snail crawling at a corner or the door positions, they would never have guessed they were at another room. 'All the places look the same!' The kid though, as Toriel stood in front of the next door. "As a human in the underground, monsters are bound to attack you" Toriel said, causing them to get visibly distressed. "But don't worry. When you meet a monster, you may get in a FIGHT. During the FIGHT, strike up a friendly conversation. Stall for time and I will come to resolve the conflict. Try practicing with that dummy over there." Toriel pointed out to the worn dummy in the corner.

They walked towards the dummy and stared at it for a bit before finally talking. "Hi. How are you?" They asked. The dummy refused to talk, but they were determined in making the conversation work. "You don't want to talk? It's ok. We can still be friends!" Still met with silence, they quickly scanned the dummy and spotted some cotton leaking from a small hole in the dummy's head. "You seem hurt. Did someone beat you?" They were yet not answered "I'm sorry someone hurt you. Here! You can have it!" They removed the bandage they had on their knee and placed it on a cut they had on their head, closing the hole from which cotton leaked.

As they were about to leave, the dummy seemingly reacted to being bandaged, making the kid turn around. Were it not for the fact that they were really close, they wouldn't have heard the soft whisper of gratitude from the Dummy.

"... Thank you..."

Toriel, observing everything seemed pleased with the child's actions. "Splendid! Shall we?" She said as she walked towards the next room as they followed her.

"Follow me." She motioned to the child, entering the hallway. They followed her, but they stopped when a Froggit hopped between them and Toriel. The Froggit wasted no time before attacking them, but this time, more aware of the dangers of battle, they quickly avoided most attacks. Unfortunately, the child did not avoid them all, causing them to be injured.

The youth looked torn in sadness and sulked, but before anything else happened, Toriel quickly appeared, glaring intently at the Froggit, making it leave. "Would you look at that! Poor child. Here, let me bandage it." She said as she pulled a bandage from her pocket and patched their injuries. It may have been for a short moment, but they felt a nice warmth from being taken care of.

They both approached a bridge covered in spikes, seemingly impassable. "Well, this is the puzzle... But... Here. Grab my hand." Toriel offered with a gentle smile. They looked skeptical, but after some pondering of whether or not, they finally took her hand. It was big and firm, but at the same time, it was really warm... Almost as if they could feel the caring behind the touch. They felt a fuzzy feeling tug in their heart as Toriel gave a gentle squeeze before walking through the puzzle.

They were totally unaware of the danger they were in. They were crossing a spike filled bridge over a big pond. One wrong step and either spikes or sinking like a brick, as they couldn't swim. Still, the sense of safety Toriel brought them was such that even after realizing those things, it didn't scare them. The caring aura coming from her brought assurance to the kid, making them perfectly comfortable.

As Toriel solved the puzzle with them right behind her, they slowly let a warm smile in their face. They couldn't remember when was the last time something felt as nice as walking hand in hand with her.

"Puzzles seem a bit dangerous for now. Let's move on, won't we?" Toriel said after finishing the puzzle and letting go of their hand. Despite the slight disappointment, they did not show it. They still looked happy enough to keep a good rhythm behind her.

They walked some more, until Toriel stopped. "My child... I have a difficult request for you." Toriel said somberly, worrying them. "I need you to walk to the other side of this hallway alone. Forgive me for this." She continued before rushing off to the other end of the huge corridor.

A bit startled, they rushed in the vain attempt to match her pace. Unfortunately, even running as fast as they could, they were no match for her adult legs. They ran and ran, but it just seemed endless and scary to them, despite just being a particularly longer than average hallway.

Growing more and more anxious, they started to speed up until they tripped and fell flat on their face. Still on the ground, they started weeping until it became full wailing. Hearing the kid's cry, Toriel appeared from behind the pillar at the end of the room, rushing even faster than she left. "My child, what's wrong? Are you hur- Oomph" She was promptly interrupted by the child giving her a tackle with all their strength, hugging her as tight as they could, knocking the wind out of her in the process as they kept crying. "I'm... I'm sorry...  _sniff..._  I don't like being alone..." They said between sneezes. Toriel stood in silence, for a second unsure of what to say. After some more weeping they spoke again. "I'm sorry... _Pwease_ don't dislike me...!" They begged, a bit of snot dripping from their runny nose in her dress from crying too much, as they looked upward facing her with their tear-filled eyes.

Toriel, heartbroken from seeing them in such a state, hugged them back tightly and replied. "No! No, no, no, no! Of course I won't! I'm the one who has to apologize for asking you to do something you don't feel comfortable doing. Despite being scared, you went through half of the hallway, which I am very proud of you for doing so..." She said, hugging them a bit tighter. "I mean it. I'm proud of you, my child." She said, whispering gently to their ear, attempting to calm them down. Noticing them relaxing in her arms, she let out a sigh of relief.

Their hug, despite still being tight, was less desperate and more affectionate. The weeping stopped and they stood still for a couple of seconds, until they stopped sobbing as well. They calmed down, which led them to unknowingly let an innocent whisper...

"Thank you, mom..."

Their eyes widened as the child realized what they just said. Quickly breaking the hug, they started to apologize, while Toriel still blushed. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to, it was just an accident. I won't do it again so please don't get upset! I... I..." They stuttered, uncertain of what to do.

"Calm down, my child." Toriel said, making them stare wide eyed, fearful. "Do you dislike the idea of calling me 'Mother'?" She asked. They shook their head firmly. "Then, does it makes you happy?" She inquired. They bashfully nodded to her, uncertain of what was going to happen.

"Well, if that's how you feel about it, then please, do call me 'Mom'! If it'll make you happy, feel free to do so!" She said with possibly the warmest smile to ever exist.

Immediately, they smile almost as brightly as her, if not even more, and tackled her again, hugging even tighter than previously. "Ok, mom!" They cheered excitedly, as Toriel embraced them once again. "Also, it's Frisk." They spoke after a while, still hugging her. "Excuse me?" quickly prompted Toriel confused by the statement out of nowhere. "My name is Frisk. You told me your name, but I didn't tell you mine, I'm sorry... It's just..." They started to apologize, but Toriel shushed them and started to pet them. "It's OK. I assume it must be scary to fall underground and suddenly meet with monsters, especially after a golden flower attacked you. I don't blame you. I'm just glad you're comfortable now." Toriel said, while still petting their hair gently, making them shudder with happiness.

"Now, come, my child." Toriel said as she extended her hand, as Frisk quickly followed her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the end of chapter one. If you enjoyed it, please do let me know. All criticism is welcome.


	2. Home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is my second chapter on this little experiment that is this AU. Hopefully, It's improving from the first chapter. I'm glad with how it turned out.
> 
> Also, I'd like to dedicate some time to my friend who saved this story by taking me out of a deep rut I got into this Friday that almost made me throw everything away. If you do enjoy how it turned out, you can thank him (through me, I'll read it later for him) for not letting me give up on my creation!
> 
> Without further ado... Enjoy it!

Toriel led the way, with Frisk following closely. They were still unsure of how they ended up in this situation, but so far, it has been pleasant overall, despite the Flowey incident. As they entered the next room, Frisk saw the fallen leaves on the ground and started to playfully crinkle the leaves. Toriel, not far behind watched them with a soft smile from seeing the child filled with such glee.

As Frisk got up, they both noticed the Froggit on the corner of the room and walked towards it. Toriel was glaring fiercely, making the Froggit bow in fear. "Do you understand why am I frowning at you?" Asked Toriel in a firm, almost menacing tone. " Ribbit... Rib? (I presume it has something to do with the fallen down human... Is that right?)" The Froggit croaked, afraid of Toriel's response. "Yes! Why did you attack them all of a sudden? They had done nothing to you! You should at least give them a proper apology!" Toriel stated. "...Riiib...(I'm terribly sorry...)" they replied, as it looked down in shame while Toriel continued her reprimanding.

However, before it could go on any further, Frisk put themselves in front of the Froggit and interrupted Toriel. "Mom, I think that's enough. They apologized, didn't they?" Toriel was surprised, but nodded in response. "And you won't attack me again, right?" Frisk said to the froggit, who croaked and nodded in response. "So it's all ok! We are friends, now, aren't we?" The kid smiled towards the Froggit, who couldn't help but reciprocate the smile. 

Toriel looked slightly surprised, but above all else, glad with the outcome.

"If that's settled, then I assume we can go, can't we? Let me just... Oh, the candy bowl in the next room is empty. The store is quite far from here and you'd be tired from the long walk..." Said Toriel, frowning as she tried to figure it out how to go to the store without leaving Frisk alone. "Ribbit. (I can look after the human, ma'am.)" Croaked the Froggit. "... I suppose... Can I trust you to look after Frisk while I go fetch some candy? It'd be awful if someone came here and had no candy for themselves, wouldn't you agree?" She said, preparing a bag. "Don't worry mom! We're friends now, so there is no problem. I'll wait right here!" Said the smiling child.

"I won't take long!" Said Toriel, going to the next room while Frisk played a bit on the fallen leaves as the Froggit looked over them. Shortly, the Froggit hopped closer and called the child. "Ribbit, Ribbit? (You seem to be quite caring, are you not, human?)" The froggit called. "I am? What do you mean?" Frisk asked obliviously in response, slightly tilting their head in confusion. "Ribbit, Ribbit Rib Ribbit. Rib, Ribbit Ribbit. Ribbit, riiiib. Rib ribbit. (I'm sorry, I forgot you were so young, but nevertheless, I'd like to ask something of you, human. Today you have shown compassion for your enemy and, despite not being in real danger, you stood up for me. Your love did that. There will come many things in your life. Strength may save you, but only love can save the others. When someone needs it, please human, share some of your love with them."

Frisk has been silently listening looked slightly confused, but gave their best to absorb all the information .

"I think I understand..." They quietly replied, now with a smile in their face. "I will do my best!"

"Ribbit. (I see now why Toriel looks so dearly after you. You really are a good child.)" The Froggit said smiling as well.

After being met with the compliment, Frisk laughed bashfully and went again to run among the fallen leaves, as the Froggit looked over them. It didn't take long after that for Toriel to arrive with a bag full of candies and other goods.

"Sorry for the wait!" Said Toriel gasping for breath, as she carried the groceries. "I had to outrun a white fluffy dog, as it was interested in the bags' contents" She said, disposing the monster candy in the bowl, while taking one and giving to Frisk. "Thank you!" The small child said, eagerly eating the candy and savoring the treat.

"Now, let's go, my child." Said Toriel grabbing Frisk's hand as they both waved goodbye to the froggit and continued traveling through the ruins.

* * *

It took a while, but Toriel said they were finally halfway there. It wasn't bad, as the puzzles were easy and with Toriel solving most of them, Frisk didn't even have to do anything, although they enjoyed to ask the talking rock to move over to the switch.

After passing the table with cheese, the found themselves blocked by a seemingly sleeping ghost.

"zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz... are they gone yet...? zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz" said in an incredibly unconvincing way the laid ghost, blocking their path.

Toriel and Frisk looked at one another, wondering what to do.

"Excuse me, Mr. Ghost, could you please move?" Said Toriel, hoping to convince the spectral figure to get up and let them pass. To their misfortune, it was to no avail.

"Mr. Ghost, we need to cr- WHOA!"Frisk yelled after trying to gently nudge the ghost, but getting caught inside it. 

"what...? how did you get inside...?" Said Napstablook, now floating with Frisk inside their spectral figure. "oh no... i am bothering you..... oh no.... you are in danger because of me......... noooo............................." They were floating around high enough to make Toriel rip some of her fur in anxiety, fearing their fall at any second, since Frisk was slipping from Napstablook's "body".

"FRISK! DON'T WORRY, I WILL CATCH YOU!" Shouted Toriel, readying herself to catch the slippery kid. Frisk, observing it, better positioned themselves for the fall and tried to swim downwards to land in Toriel's arms. Napstablook noticing the child's intentions, lowered himself a bit and tried to help with the positioning, adjusting his specter.

After struggling a bit more, they finally fell off Napstablook and landed in Toriel's soft arms. 'Being in danger is nice sometimes...' thought Frisk as Toriel cuddled them and babbled endlessly about how worried she was.

"... And I don't even know how you got in so much trouble in such a short amount of time here in the underground! Were you always this mischievous, little one?" Toriel asked half scolding, half joking with them. Frisk, still in her arms, shrugged but smiled nevertheless and looked towards Napstablook.

"That was so cool! Can we do it again one day?" Frisk asked Napstablook, still wiping some ectoplasm off their clothes. "... i don't know... i don't want to be bothersome, but... if you want... that's ok..." Napstablook replied bashfully.

"I don't think my heart can handle if you do that again, Frisk. Refrain from doing this again in the future." Toriel demanded.

"Ok... But can we at least see each other again sometime?"

Toriel thought for a bit before finally smiling and said "... As long as you don't endanger yourself, I don't see the harm."

"Yay!" Frisk beamed and went to hug Napstablook, but quickly realized that it wouldn't work. But before they'd get discouraged, they thought of something. Wiping some of the ectoplasm in the stick they were holding, they brought it closer to the depressed ghost. "You can touch your own goo, can't you?" They innocently asked.

"...yes... but what will I do with this...?" Napstablook asked, curious about this child's shenanigans. "Hold it!" Frisk asked, hopping a bit. They quickly complied, holding the ectoplasm so to hold the stick on their side.

"Now, even though you are a ghost, we can now hold hands! Isn't that nice?" Frisk smiled towards the ghost, who looked surprised. Unknowingly, Napstablook blushed and smiled softly.

"... I usually come to the RUINS because there's nobody around... but today I met nice people... ... oh, I'm rambling again. I'll get out of your way.... oh... before I forget, my house is in WATERFALL... if you really meant about hanging out... you can look for me there..." Napstablook said before ushering one more 'goodbye' and vanishing.

"They are all very nice!" Said Frisk walking ahead of Toriel. "Uh...? What do you mean, little one?" Toriel asked. "The monsters down here. Despite what the storybooks they read to me said, you are all very nice!" Frisk said joyfully.

Toriel smiled with their remark and just hummed softly before proceeding to the next room.

* * *

 

It didn't take long, but after some more walking and a small break for the motion sick child after crossing the perspective changing puzzle, they finally got to their destination.

"Here we are, my little one! Your new home!" Toriel beamed with joy as she watched Frisk run towards the house. They scanned it thoroughly from the outside, glowing with excitement in their every move.

"It's so beautiful! I love it already!" They said waiting for Toriel to come and open the door. It was not locked, but they still waited for her to go ahead and they followed her. Inside was even prettier than they expected. The furniture was light colored and everything was really neat and tidy. The flowers in the pot on the left exhaled a soft fragrance, almost as if welcoming back the inhabitants of the house, while the mirror reflected some of the light, giving it a pleasant atmosphere and a full bookshelf decorated the right. They felt at peace.

Frisk could only for short while wonder where the stairs below led to before Toriel called them. "Come with me, there is something I want to show you."

Hearing Toriel's call, Frisk rushed towards her and picked Toriel's hand. They walked a bit in the corridor before stopping at the first door. "This is your new room. I hope you can enjoy it." She said softly, while putting her hand in their head and stroking their hair softly, causing Frisk to smile. "Why don't you take a look? I have to go to the kitchen, sort a few things. Call me if you need anything." Toriel said, leaving shortly after.

Frisk opened the door and walked inside, exploring the new territory. Unsurprisingly, it was clean and organized. There was a wardrobe, a box, a drawing on the wall, a chest full of toys, a lamp in the corner, some plush dolls and a nice, comfy bed.

Without wasting any time, they went over to examine everything. The toy chest had many cool things to play with, but they decided to save that for another time. They went over for the drawing. It was of a pretty yellow flower. Still awestruck with their new place, they scanned through each and every thing, until they finally sat on the bed, watching over the plushes. They picked the white plush and hummed happily.

Little did they notice that only then, the exhaustion from the whole thing so far had kicked in and they were starting to doze off. It didn't take long before Frisk finally let go of consciousness.

* * *

_It was dark, damp and loud. The dark sky was torn by the bright lightning, igniting a tree. The storm wouldn't cease and Frisk was terrified of it._

_Shadows lurked everywhere. Some apathetic to them, others laughing and others seemed aggressive towards their presence. They could only run and run, hoping to not get caught._

_They ran and ran, but they tripped and fell down, scraping their knee. The pain was bad, but not even close to the fear and the discomfort of being alone in a thunderstorm at the forest. They asked for help, but no one came. They shouted, but no one came. After calling for what felt like years without anyone coming, they sobbed inconsolably. Those grief filled tears were so thick they might as well drown in them. It never changed. No one ever came. And that was what hurt the most._

_They were crying endlessly, but... Something happened..._

_... In the midst the storm, a sweet scent popped up. It smelled nice..._

_Suddenly, they were not on the ground anymore, but something had picked them up. Soon, they were being enveloped by a strange warmth..._

_The source of the warmth dried their tears and fully enveloped them with care and gentleness._

_It didn't take long before the endless storm had ceased to be. The dark clouds were gone and the dampness of the rain had left. The sharp and cold wind was replaced by a soft breeze and the sun had appeared once more._

_"... Do not worry, my child... I am right here..." Said a soft voice, bringing a sense of  peace and calm to Frisk. They were smiling from the bottom of their heart. A soft sensation was felt in their cheek. Was that... A kiss? How many nights had Frisk dreamed of ever getting another one of those again..._

_Immersed in such affection, they say with all the emphasis they can._

_"I love you mom..."......_

_.................._

* * *

They finally woke up. It was an intense dream. Not entirely wonderful, but the emotions it provoked would be remembered for a long time. They noticed that their surroundings changed a bit. The room was dark, as the light was turned off. Their plush was still with them, but they had a warm blanket covering them. They could still sense the sweet smell lingering in the air. Looking for it's source, they quickly found it: A pie of a flavor they have never eaten before in a plate beside their bed. It smelled like butterscotch and something they did not know.

After turning on the light, Frisk took the fork set beside the pie and gave it a try. It was sweet, but whatever was in it blocked the overwhelming sweetness from the butterscotch, making it more moderate, yet still completely remarkable. It was wonderful.

They finally left for the living room, where Toriel was reading. Her chair was huge. It had to be, so she could sit comfortably in it. There was a lit fireplace beside her, the fire not hot, just warm to the point one could even put their hand inside. There was a bookshelf filled to the brim with the most diverse books. Unfortunately, they didn't seem to have many pictures, which could hinder their understanding of its contents. The wooden table and chairs were simple, but tasteful.

Toriel shortly noticed Frisk's arrival and greeted them. "Why, hello my child! I hope you are enjoying it. I wasn't expecting to find someone today, really, but I'm glad I prepared everything just in case. Oh... ALMOST everything, given that I had to bake the pie while you played in your room." Toriel said with the now closed book on her lap, motherly smile seemingly eternal, only to be broken by her next statement, filled with worry. "... When it got ready and cooled down, I was going to give it to you, but I found you asleep, so I didn't want to wake you up. I was just going to leave the plate beside your bed so you could have it when you woke up, but I heard you mumbling. I thought you were uncomfortable so I went over to see what was wrong, when I noticed you were crying in your sleep." She said quietly, as Frisk listened to her. "Are you feeling better now?"

Frisk let out a soft smile, as they recalled Toriel's voice in their dream "... Yes... Thank you mom."

Toriel let herself smile once again and continued. "So, did you try the pie?" She asked now back to her usual cheerful mood. "Yes, it was great!" Frisk said beaming with joy, as they recalled the delicious piece of pie they ate a few moments ago. "Wonderful! It's a special recipe: Butterscotch-Cinnamon pie! I thought it'd be nice to celebrate your arrival." She said proud and glad that they enjoyed it. 

"Well, you seem rested enough after a nice nap and some pie. What do you want to do now?"

"Oh! Can I go play around in the garden with the whimsums?" They asked, excited to go back to the friends they made in the RUINS.

After pondering for a while, she finally allowed, given that the traps were already deactivated.

Beaming with excitement, they ran to the front door. "Wait, Frisk!" Toriel called them, stopping them on their track.

"Don't try anything dangerous, have as much fun as you can and..." Toriel closed her eyes and let the moment sink in before finally opening them again, motherly and caring as usual, before finally talking "... I love you too, my child." 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we are done with chapter 2.
> 
> Currently going through a major reboot, fixing some details and plot holes and scrapping some bad ideas here and there, favoring what this story has done right. Thanks for your patience.


	3. Heartache

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It did take a bit longer than I wanted, but here it is: InfanTale Chapter 3. The Author's notes are separated in two segments. The upper one will be the professional one, where you can read my updates strictly about the fanfiction with no time wasting with more personal/unprofessional approaches. That content will be sent to the footnotes. I hope it suits your tastes and you can enjoy your read. 
> 
> If you want to know the progress of the fanfiction, Check my profile or just PM me.
> 
> DISCLAIMER: I do not own Undertale, or the song lyrics featured in this chapter. Credits are for respectively Toby Fox and Adriana Figueroa (Home cover Feat. FamilyJules7X)

"Frisk! Come home! Dinner is ready!" Shouted Toriel from the front door, calling her child to go back. Almost instantly, they came running as fast as they could, almost tripping on the way home.

"What's for dinner?" Asked an overexcited Frisk, taking off their shoes and running towards the dining room.

"Nothing until you store your shoes properly, my child." Toriel scolded playfully. "Now, go and pick up your shoes. The steak will be cold soon."

"Yeah! Steak!" Cheered the young one picking up their shoes and running to their room. While Toriel's pies were the best in the world, all of her cuisine was terrific.

It has been many days since Frisk started living with Toriel. They slowly got used to living this new life in the RUINS, playing around with its denizens and exploring the ruins every once and again, but always returning later to the comfort of the warm and cozy place they could call "Home".

Toriel was really happy as well. She would be almost always excited when taking care of Frisk, spoiling them and enjoying their company and kindness, as the infant would share with her every single detail of their adventures with the new froggit they met or how that particular block looked prettier than the others. Save for moments where Frisk was in some "dangerous" situation, Toriel would not be seen not smiling.

They dinned happily in the cozy room. Autumn was not forgiving, so the occasional gust of wind that came from above the ruins was harsh, but the safety and warmth that came from being back home brought was not only relaxing, but blissful. As Frisk devoured the meat, Toriel ate her leftover snail pie calmly, enjoying the moment with the kid. It was simple, but it was perfect.

It didn't take long before they both finished their meals. The child sat there, slumping, too tired to move on their own. "It is time to go to bed, my child." Toriel called, making the almost asleep child to hazily look at her. Before they could even muster an ounce of their strength to get up, Toriel picked them up, carefully nested between her arms and walked towards Frisk's room.

After helping the now sleepy child to get dressed in their pajamas, Toriel put Frisk in their bed, tucking the blanket over them. Before she could leave, however, she felt something tugging her dress.

"Mom, can you sing again, please?" Said the tired child, pleading with droopy eyes.

Listening to their sweet request, Toriel smiled softly and replied "Of course, my dear.", laying their head back on the pillow as she sat in the bed and started to hum softly.

 

_"Come my child_

_Stay with me_

_I'll protect you and your dreams_

 

_Rest my child_

_Neath the tree_

_Like it's branches reach for me_

 

_So let me keep you safe and warm here in my arms_

_Think of the life that we have, the joy that it gives_

_Even if we're worlds apart, stay in my heart_

_Someday when you've a choice to make, I hope you'll think of me_

_Think of me_

_Think of me_

 

_We'll meet again_

_And you'll have made many friends_

_But if you find you've strayed_

_I'll forgive you anyway_

 

_So stay determined as you grow, love as you go_

_Think of the kindness that I've shared and cherish those who care_

_Even when we're worlds apart, stay in my heart_

_Someday you'll have a choice to make, I hope that you'll be good_

_Please be good... Just be good..."_

 

When Toriel finished singing, Frisk was already sound asleep, nestled beneath the blanket with a smile. Toriel gave a good night kiss in their forehead, muttering "I love you".

"Love you too... Mom..." The half asleep Frisk replied. Toriel then turned off the table-lamp and quietly stepped out of the room, going back to the dining table. She picked up the plates and brought to the kitchen, as dishes had to be washed and stored. The day was not tiring, but a mother's duty never ends. Still, she wouldn't have it any other way.

After finishing the remaining house duties, she put her pajamas and went to bed, glad that another wonderful day had passed by.

 

* * *

 

_They were running around in the ruins. It was neither too chilly nor too warm. The perfect temperature to play outside with their new friends._

_Frisk gleefully chased the hopping Froggits as Napstablook looked over them, by request of Toriel. It took a while, but she trusted that 'Blooky', as Frisk started to call him, had only the best of intentions and that nothing like the flight incident would happen again._

_Everything was wonderful and they enjoyed playing a lot with everyone. Vegetoids made Frisk learn to like vegetables, despite not being all of them. Moldsmalls wiggled in happiness as Frisk came to dance with them, Loox would not bully them after receiving so many heartfelt hugs from them. Even Whimsums started to warm up to their presence._

_As Frisk played with them, something fell from their pocket._

_A cute red ribbon. The same ribbon Frisk had found during their playtime in the ruins._

_..._

_They were no longer in the ruins. They were in those woods they once knew so well._

_They clutched the ribbon tightly, reminiscing something important._

_"Fwisk!"_

_A high pitched voice shouted in the distance._

_"...! Where are you?" Frisk shouted, looking for the source of the sound._

_"Fwisk! Help me, Fwisk!" Shouted the voice once more._

_Frisk was running desperately looking for where it came from. It might as well be the most important task in the world to reach the voice._

_"...y! I'm coming..."_

_..._

_... ... ..._

 

* * *

 

The morning had come. Despite not having proper sunlight, the warmth of the sun rays passed onto the ruins in the soft morning breeze that would get caught between cracks in the walls.

Toriel was already up and about, preparing some butterscotch & cinnamon pie. She heard Frisk tossing in their sleep last night, so she calmed them down, but she thought that maybe a tasty pie in the morning would definitely cheer them up. Nightmares weren't frequent, as Toriel feared they'd be, but as young as Frisk were, she wasn't surprised if they popped up every now and then, specially when they are still getting used to their new life in the RUINS.

The pie was in the oven and Frisk shouldn't be awake for at least an hour. She decided to use this time to talk with her friend.

Going down the basement, she walked through the long hallway until she reached the Ruins door. It was purple, like the rest of the place, but so big that even someone as tall as her would look average sized in comparison.

She then knocked on the door with some strength, hoping to get his attention.

For her luck, it doesn't take long before someone replies.

"sup. lady, is that you?" The deep voice replied.

"Knock Knock!" She quickly said.

"who's there?"

"Avenue."

"avenue who?"

"Avenue knocked on this door before?"

Suddenly, he was chuckling non stop. The joke caught him off-guard, which pleased Toriel.

"Knock knock!" She continued excitedly.

Still laughing, he replied. "who's there?"

"Avenue!"

"avenue who?" Said the intrigued guest.

"Avenue heard this one before?"

A short silence followed by even more ceaseless laughter followed. He was enjoying it a whole lot. "I like your style, you go **street**  to the business."

Toriel started to laugh, but that didn't stop her from continuing. "Well, don't think... heh... I'm not PATHway done. There is an entire ROAD ahead of you."

"heh. don't worry, i'll keep **track**  of it for you." Said the unnamed figure, making Toriel howl in laughter.

"wow. lady, you seem to be in a really good mood lately. has something good happened lately?" Asked the curious spectator.

Gleefully, the tall monster continued laughing, now not hysterically, but soft, as if savoring the moment. "Yes... Something wonderful happened... I told you some time before that I used to be a mother, didn't I?" Toriel began " Well, I was pretty lonely living in the ruins, so I appreciate your company very much, but I think you may have noticed my absence lately, did you not?" Toriel asked. After he hummed to acknowledge the info, Toriel took a deep breath.

"Some weeks ago, a human has fallen here." Toriel said. Her friend did not reply, making her unsure whether he was shocked or just waiting for her to continue. She decided not to wait. "However, he was different from the others: He was surprisingly young. He was lost and scared when I found him, so I decided to look after him. We bonded through our experiences and, one way or another, I ended up looking after him as my own child."

"you seem excited about this kid. you like 'em that much?" Asked the voice on the other side of the door.

She hummed, mockingly pretending to think over his question. "I think 'love' is a more appropriated word for the situation." She answered wholeheartedly.

"'love?' you just met the kid. i know i'm not a parent so i can't really understand how it is, but are you sure that's how it works?" her friend replied, intrigued by the whole thing. "he could be any kind of human. even bad things could happen because of the kid." Asked her friend, sounding concerned.

Toriel didn't take long to reply, answering in a rather calm tone. "I know... it sounds weird, doesn't it? Loving someone you met in such a short time like your own child..." Toriel said, leaning in the door, making a small 'thud' in the process. "But, it's not as complicated as it seems." She continued. "I don't think any kind of love needs 'time' or 'reason' to be. As long as you have it in your heart the desire to care for someone... you will love them. Loving isn't something you rationally choose, it's a part of who you are."

"lady..." Ushered the yet unseen guest.

"When we met... He asked to call me their mother. I didn't mind. In fact, it makes me glad to think the kind and caring boy I found fallen in the ruins wants me to be someone as important as his mother!" She continued, slightly more excited. "I'll be honest, at first I wasn't sure if they were a boy or a girl when we first met, but he was always wanting to explore the ruins and come back riddled with filth and dirt, so I had to scrub him clean! When you are a mother of such a young prankster, if you don't do it yourself, they will crawl to their bed dirtying the whole house unless you make them go to the bathroom!" She told him. "He is so young... He can't even read properly yet. Not that I mind reading the bedtime stories for them, but it makes me determined to teach them how to read! Soon, I will be teaching several other subjects to him so he can learn how to live in the RUINS happily." She finished her thoughts with a huge unseen, yet motherly smile in her face.

There was a short silence between the two of them. Toriel was a bit anxious about his reaction, but after hearing a short chuckle, she felt relief flowing through her. "well, now i'm sure you love this kid. never seen you this excited even when telling my best jokes. almost makes me jealous." He said playfully, causing her to laugh as well. "i'm just glad you are having a good time." Toriel's friend said, causing her to beam in happiness.

"however..." He continued "as much as i hate to ask this, i still have to. what will you do when your kid asks you 'what lies beyond that big door?'?"

Toriel's smile broke at that very instant upon hearing his words.

"... not something easy to think about, hum? you've told me you looked after other humans some time ago, and that's fine. but all the others, sooner or later, left the RUINS trying to go home, didn't they?" Toriel's friend asked. She was still too shocked to reply, filling the air with silence.

"one day," he unhesitatingly carried on "the kid will grow up, probably miss his home above the underground... the sun... all those things he had. when that time comes, what will you do?"

Toriel was no longer standing. She was still leaning at the door, but now seated. "I... I..."

"hey, you don't have to answer it now, you know? it's not like the kid will decide to leave today." He said, attempting to improve her mood. "as you said, the kid is too young. if he is as you described, he'd rather be in the company of his mother." He consoled her before she'd get too distressed over the unpleasant question.

"Y-Yes..." Toriel said, still a bit shaken, but somewhat more confident.

"so... just go back and be the a good mom. i'm sure you'll do just fine." he finished.

"Thank you... You're such a good friend and..." Toriel started to thank him, but stopped halfway as she noticed an incredibly thin smell of smoke.

"OH NO! THE PIE!" She shouted as she ran as fast as she could, stomping so hard the floor almost cracked in her steps.

"... i hope she's all right." Toriel's friend said before going away.

 

* * *

 

 

"That was too close!" Said Toriel as she took the pie away from the oven. Small parts of it got burnt, but most of it was still in conditions to be eaten, so she was just glad it turned out fine. She promised herself never to leave the oven on and leave to do something ever again. Despite using fire magic only and the only possible danger was to make the pie overburnt, she didn't want to set a bad example to Frisk.

As she put the pie in the table, she saw Frisk half asleep going to the breakfast table. "Good morning, my child! Did you sleep well?" Asked Toriel as she met the child with a warm look. Still yawning, he slightly nodded and sat on his small chair, slowly opening his eyes as he noticed the pie slice approaching him, causing him to smile. "Buttspie!" The young kid said excited for having his favorite food made for him.

Toriel couldn't help but laugh every time Frisk called her pie 'buttspie'. "It's 'butterscotch' pie. It has cinnamon as well, my child." She said, still holding back a few giggles. "But enjoy as much as you want!" She finished, handing a child sized fork for him.

Frisk eagerly ate the pie, all sleepiness cast away by the sweetness of the pie, while Toriel ate her slice as well, softly humming while doing so. She was just glad life has been so nice recently.

She didn't even want to think of what it would be like losing Frisk.

* * *

 

 

"... when the Monsters joined their hearts, they shone with such a radiance that the moon in the sky struck with their light, shone back all the love it received, clearing a path for them to walk out of the eternal woods and making them all go back home returned to their families and lived happily ever after. The end." Said Toriel closing the picture book she was reading to Frisk. He was fascinated by it. He had been trying to read on his own every once in a while, but he'd always get stuck with some letters he'd forget and some words' meanings every now and then. He still made remarkable progress, regardless, considering that he hadn't read anything in his life before.

"That's so cool!" Frisk jumped as the story ended, getting up and running around the living room. "One day, I want have the strongest heart of them all, so I can be a hero too!" Said the overly enthusiastic kid playing around the house, pretending to be one of the characters in the book.

While flailing around the living room, Toriel put the book back in the shelf and went on to read a book about snails, looking for more info that could improve her snail pie recipe. She still wanted Frisk to like it, and she'd make her best until he did. Frisk was having a lot of fun, playing with the toy knife, pretending its a machete and traversing the forest, until he stumbled and fell.

"Are you all right, frisk?" Said Toriel quickly getting worried as soon as she heard the thud, turning around to find frisk lying on the floor.. "Yeah... it didn't hurt!" Frisk said, quickly shrugging off the bruise. As he was getting up, he noticed the red ribbon had fallen down from his pocket. Frisk felt something tugging in his heart, and Toriel noticed it. "What's wrong, my child? Are you hurt after all?" Toriel said, getting anxious and approaching Frisk.

"...ome..?" Mumbled Frisk, staring at the floor. "I'm sorry, my child, I did not hear you. Please, speak up." Begged Toriel, trying to remain as calm as possible, despite being obviously distressed.

Frisk looked up, filled his lungs and asked: "When can I go home?"

_\- "but... lady... what will you do when your kid asks you 'what lies beyond that big door'?"_

Toriel wasn't sure what just happened. There was an excruciating weight in her SOUL. Were it not the fact it continued to hurt, she'd have thought that her SOUL crushed in six pieces.

"W-wha..? Wh-What are you talking about, my child? You ARE home." Toriel asked nervously.

She was met with Frisk's silence at first, but he continued. "Mom... How do I exit the RUINS?"

Toriel was getting more and more distressed. She wasn't freaking out, but she was visibly shaken from that. Unsure on how to proceed, she tried to change the topic. "Uhm... How about I tell you some snail facts? Did you know that snails have a chainsaw-like tongue called a radula?" She said, hoping to intrigue the kid. Yet, she already knew by the look in his eyes that they wouldn't back off from it.

Before Frisk could even say anything, Toriel quickly got up and rushed to the main hallway. "Please, stay here, I have something to do." She said, before going down to the basement.

'Nononononononononono! That's too soon! That's way too soon! I can't let him go. The others... it hurt enough despite merely staying a day... Frisk... I can't bear to lose another one... Asgore will... NO! I WILL NOT ALLOW IT! I WILL SAVE THIS CHILD! WHATEVER THE COSTS!' Toriel thought, as she walked through the basement halls.

 

* * *

 

 

Frisk got startled from Toriel's sudden outburst. He was scared, but regardless, he still had to do it. He loved his current life, but he had an important mission he had to accomplish no matter what. That filled him with something he was not aware yet of what it was, but gave him the strength to carry on.

Going through the hallway, he heard Toriel's footsteps coming from the stairs that lead to the underground. Toriel told him countless times to never go downstairs, but he could not afford to step back. Not with that at stake. Taking in all the courage he had, he braved forth.

It was dark. Not as dark as the room he had fallen down at first, but enough to be eerie. Frisk was slightly scared, but he couldn't back down, so he pushed forward.

As the scared infant walked, he finally stumbled on Toriel before reaching the end.

"... You wish to know how to return 'home', do you not?" Toriel talked in a calm, serious demeanor. "Ahead of us lies the place I told you to never come close: the end of the RUINS. A one-way exit to the rest of the underground." She said somberly.

"I am going to destroy it. No one will ever be able to leave again. Now be a good child and go upstairs" She finished, as she walked towards the end of the hallway.

Frisk was flabbergasted upon hearing this, unsure of what would happen. He wanted to comply and go back, but deep inside of him, he knew he had to push forward and decided to do so.

Still following her, she continued, now dead serious. "Every human that falls down here meets the same fate. I have seen it again and again. They come. They leave. They die." Frisk trembled upon hearing the last sentence. "You naive child... If you leave the RUINS... They will kill you. I am only protecting you, do you understand?" She asked without turning around to meet him in the eye. "... Go to your room." Toriel demanded, still walking towards the end of it. Frisk was unsure, but still carried on. "Mom..." Frisk pleaded, hoping to improve the atmosphere.

"Do not try to stop me. This is your final warning." She interrupted before approaching the door that lead to the gateway outside.

She stood there, looking threatening. Far more than Frisk had ever seen. Even when blasting Flowey away or glaring at the Froggit, never has she looked so menacing as she did at that moment. Yet, he had to face it. He hesitantly approached her. "Mom... Please..." They tried pleading one last time.

"You want to leave so badly? H-Have I done something wrong?" She asked, despite being serious, visibly shaken up. "Was I not a good 'mother' to you? Do you regret it?" She asked, eyes glistening with unshed tears.

"No! No I don't!" Frisk quickly replied, deeply anxious with how things were turning out.

"Then why? I gave you a warm bed, all my love and care and we can live a good life down here. So why?"

Frisk found himself too startled to answer, knees shaking from apprehension.

"You won't survive if you leave... I won't allow you to die! GO BACK TO YOUR ROOM!" Toriel said, flames bursting out of her hand, lighting up the basement and increasing the heat in the room.

"... M-mom...? P-p-please... stop..." Frisk said, sniffling, wanting to run away desperately, but despite the fear, the warm feeling in his chest made him stay.

"FRISK! GO UPSTAIRS!" Toriel said, throwing flames in the air, attempting to startle the child. Despite the obvious fear, he did not back away. Toriel knew that look. Inside his eyes, despite the fear, the flames of DETERMINATION were burning bright, making him stay.

Attempting to break his determination, she threw flames in his direction. Purposefully missing, of course, but close enough to scare him.

"GO! NOW!" Toriel demanded.

Frisk was there, startled, unsure of what to do. Seemingly endless panic and fear coursed through his body. Finally regaining the capacity to act from his apprehension, he slightly walked towards Toriel, attempting to get to her.

"NO! YOU WON'T LEAVE!" Toriel screamed as she threw another fire ball, exploding on the ground. The flames did not harm Frisk, but the air blast pushed him and he stumbled, feeling the heat wave.

"I... I-I... I..." Frisk started, before finally breaking down in a wail and curling into a ball, desperate and scared.

The sight of the child curled up, scared and crying because of her broke her heart. She put out all the flames in an instant, as if they were never there to begin with. She was the cause of his tiny eyes being squeezed so tight, shedding so many tears. That sight and the awareness that she was responsible for it weighted far more than the idea of letting Frisk leave.

"Oh no... I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, No no no no, Frisk, my child, I'm sorry... Please, forgive me, please!" She started to endlessly apologize as she ran towards the crying child on the floor.

As soon as Toriel hugged Frisk as tight as she could, Frisk bawled his eyes out and hugged her with all the strength his tiny body had, throwing his apprehensions and fear she cast him, seeking comfort and love in her arms. "M-mom... I.. I dun wanna... I ..." Frisk attempted to speak, but all he could do was cry, so Toriel shushed him, sheding some tears herself.

They both cried, out of regret of their choices and fear of losing their recently formed family.

"I'm sorry, my child... I... I don't know what overcame me. I'm terribly sorry. If you want to leave, I will let you... Even if it breaks my heart..." She said, wiping some tears from her eyes. "My expectations... My loneliness... My fear... For you, my child... I will put them aside... Just... Don't hate me please..." Toriel said, letting her tears fall freely over Frisk once again.

Frisk, upon hearing these last words, quickly lifted his head and looked at her. "I would never _sniff_   hate you, mom! I love you!" He shouted while crying "I... I don't want to leave you, ever... But..." Frisk paused briefly, while Toriel intently looked at him, wondering what was going through his mind. "... My sister... Is there... All alone... UP THERE..."

Those words were enough. Toriel immediately remembered her own children. Those two siblings, who, one day, were inseparable. They'd spend all their time together if they could. She knew how much siblings were inseparable and how much being apart hurt them both.

She thought deep and hard about it, still comforting the sobbing child in her arms.

"Frisk... You really are a good boy." Toriel continued, wiping her own tears and wiping his as well. "Despite having a good life down here, you still think of your sister and want to be with her. I understand how much she probably means to you." She continued, as Frisk finally stopped sobbing.

"This must be a hard decision for you, isn't it? I... I won't lie and say 'I know what you've been through' because I know little to nothing about your life above the underground. I assumed you didn't want to come back, since this is the Mt. Ebott's foot, a place where people who come to it disappear. But... it seems you have someone precious to you up there who you don't want to let down. And for her, you'd even stand up against me: the person you asked to call mother."

"I'm sorry... I-"

"Nah-ah, I'm not done" Toriel interrupted. "First of all, I am proud of you." She said, making Frisk tilt his head in confusion. "You were scared, yet you tried your best to go home and see the ones you hold dear. You have grown up a little" She said, messing his hair a bit. "Just don't stand up against me again, ok? It hurt a bit." She said with a playful, yet slightly hurt smile. Still, it was undoubtedly a happy smile.

"I promise." Frisk swore unhesitating, hugging her a bit tighter as if to pass on his assurance.

"Good. Now, what I said still stands, you ARE too young to leave the RUINS on your own." Frisk looked mildly disappointed upon hearing that. "Also, I think you do need a parental figure to guide you. So go upstairs." Toriel asked.

"Yes, mom..." Frisk reluctantly walked back.

"When you reach your room, empty your backpack and pick up the shirts. When I'm done packing the pie, I will help you select your clothing."

Frisk looked back, confused about her statement. "What for?" He asked.

"Well..." Continued explaining Toriel. "I told you you are too young to leave the RUINS on your own. So we are going to pack and I am going with you!" Toriel said calmly, with a sweet smile.

"REALLY? WE ARE GOING TO SEE MY SISTER?" Frisk beamed in excitement.

"Yes, go and get ready. Tomorrow we depart." Toriel walked calmly as Frisk ran in excitement to his room and quickly started picking up every piece of cloth he had.

He could barely believe. He would not only see the rest of the Underground that they read so much in their books, but they were also going to find his sister. Perhaps they could even live together with Toriel.

He missed her a lot. That red ribbon he found in the ruins looked just like the one she wanted. He was going to find her and give her.

Maybe, if he was lucky, Toriel would like her as well and look after them both. He could barely contain his excitement. Tomorrow, things would change. Their adventure was just about to begin.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter has been mostly fixed. I'm glad with how things have been turning out. Thanks for your patience and for enjoying my story!
> 
> Thanks for your support. If you did like, I would love to hear your feedback.


	4. sans.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here it is: Chapter 4 of InfanTale. 
> 
> As usual, my profile page contains the progress for the update. You can still pm me to check how the story is going.
> 
> Without further ado, I hope you enjoy the next chapter.
> 
> DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN ANY OF THE COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL.

"Frisk! Have you finished packing, dear?" Asked Toriel from the living room.

"Almost! I just - urgh - need to - URGH!" Frisk replied, struggling to close his backpack. The RUINS' monsters were quite sad to hear that Frisk was going away, so each monster gave a memento to Frisk, causing him to have too much to carry.

"What's taking you so lon- Oh dear. Frisk. Where did all this come from?" Asked Toriel, examining scene before her.

"I did what you asked. I placed everything that's important here. But this backpack! Is! TOO! SMOL!!" Complained Frisk, annoyed as he struggled to store his precious goods.

Toriel sighed as she took everything out and placed carefully in his bed. His backpack was clearly overstuffed.

"Frisk, we cannot take all of this. Also, you still haven't answered: Where did you get all of this?"

He inhaled before explaining: "When you told me to pack everything, I went ahead and said goodbye to my friends, but then they got sad and decided to give me farewell gifts. The spiders gave me these donuts and this bottle of juice, saying that they don't want me to get hungry. Those flowers were a gift from the Whimsums. They like pretty things, so I promised them that I am going to make wherever I go prettier and bring pretty things to them when we come back. The Froggits gave me these-" Frisk said pulling out a piece of paper full of poorly written 'croaks'. "- letters. I cannot read them yet, so I was hopping you could read it for me one day. Those carrots are a gift from the vegetoids. I still don't like them, but they were really happy when I took these. The moldsmalls gave me those slimy balls and..."

Before Frisk could go on, Toriel chuckled a bit.

"What's so funny?" Asked the curious child.

"No, Frisk, it's wonderful that you have so many precious gifts from your friends. Give me your clothes, I will store them with mine..." Toriel said picking up one of Frisk's shirts, just noticing that it's completely filthy from the slime, some spider legs and dirt. "... After I give them a second washing..." Sighed the mildly annoyed mother.

"Sorry... Won't happen again!" Frisk quickly swore, bashful like a child caught misbehaving.

"It's all right, my child. Go to the kitchen and grab a plastic bag and a few boxes so you can store your gifts." Said Toriel as she took the sticky clothes to the water tank to wash those shirts.

* * *

"... What are they doing?" Said Flowey peeking out of the ground, just outside of HOME.

He attempted to eavesdrop to know what was going on, but after a few attempts, he decided that he'd make no progress merely listening to them muttering inside home. Instead, he decided to use his stealth to pop inside HOME and examine what was happening. _'Asgore's room still shut off, as usual... Toriel's... Has a suitcase...?'_ Flowey thought confused, as he quickly opened and examined the suitcase. Toriel's dresses were neatly folded along some child-sized freshly clean clothes. _'They... Are leaving? The kid I understand, but HER? LEAVING HOME? yeah, right...'_ Flowey though incredulously.

Deciding to see it for himself, he dug his way to beneath the child's room's floor to listen to their conversation.

"... So, are you forgetting anything? Make sure to double-check your stuff." Flowey heard the muffled sound of Toriel's motherly tone. It hasn't been that long since he heard that, but it still felt so far away from anything he could have ever felt. Having grown accustomed to being numb to affection, he shrugged and continued listening."We don't want to leave anything behind when we leave." Toriel continued.

 _'What?! So they ARE leaving? How is that even pos-'_ Flowey's thoughts were interrupted by quick, light running above him. "I already did! Let's go! I can't wait to see how the rest of the uner-undergou- unger- "

"Underground." Completed Toriel, noticing the child struggling to finish his sentence. She couldn't help but enjoy this aspect of being a mother. Other humans had fallen down in the underground, but most of them already knew how to speak properly. This basic teaching was something that she missed doing.

"Yeah! What you said! Let's go!" Said the overly excited kid as his small feet stomped away, shortly followed by the slower and firmer steps of Toriel.

Taking the cue, Flowey moved underground and popped out as he noticed the both of them walking towards the gate, preparing themselves to open those almost sealed doors.

 _'How did... How did this BRAT did it? I HAVE SEEN ALL THE OUTCOMES. NOTHING COULD BREAK THIS WOMAN'S WILL TO STAY LIVING HERE, PATHETIC. **AND YET... HE... HOW DID HE DO IT?! THIS BRAT IN A COUPLE OF WEEKS MADE HER LEAVE SO EASILY! I DID EVERYTHING IN THE REALM OF POSSIBILITY!** '_ Thought Flowey, completely infuriated as he watched them leave the RUINS, leaving its enormous gate open for whoever may want to go or come.

" **I CANNOT BELIEVE THIS!** THIS STUPID KID DID WHAT I COULD NEVER DO?" Shouted Flowey in anger. Met with no response from his outburst other than the endless silence, he returned to his patch of golden flowers, left alone in his thoughts.

_'Guess I found myself a new purpose this time: I'll see what this kid can do... But first, I must stop the kid. They are messing around too much. It'll be a hassle trying to figure out the endings if he just mix up everything at once. For now I'll reset and then I'll see what I can do with them.'_

...

...

"It... It didn't work? Oh, don't tell me THAT STUPID BRAT IS BLOCKING MY RESETS!" Cursed Flowey, damning everything in his sight.

Flowey growled as he schemed. _'Ok, I have to do it in THIS timeline. They seem to be too young to know about resetting, but one can never be to cautious, so my best guess is finding their weakness and break their DETERMINATION before they learn how to use it. But how am I going to do this...?'_

While still immersed in his schemes, he heard a loud noise coming from the other room. Flowey felt with his roots that something fell in the golden flowers bed. It stood still just for a short while, until it started moving.  _'Something fell again? So soon? Might as well see what it is, given that Toriel is not here anymore.'_ He thought as popped out of the flower garden and put his brightest smile to lure the newcomer.

"... Fwisk?" Said a a soft, almost mute voice. A small figure popped out in front of Flowey.

 _'... oh... OOOOOHHHH...'_ Flowey smirked in a devilish fashion for a split second, before returning to his seemingly innocent smile _'I know JUST HOW I am going to do this...'_ "Howdy! I'm Flowey! Flowey the Flower! Who are you?"

The small figure fidgeted before answering. "... My name ish..."

...

* * *

"Wooow! There is so much snow! So cool!" Shouted Frisk after crossing the gate, rushing towards the unknown.

"FRISK! Do not wander too far! Otherwise you'll get hurt!" Screamed Toriel in the distance, picking up pace to follow the eager child. Not the easiest of tasks with their suitcases and Frisk's backpack, but she carried on.

Frisk carelessly kept running. He was too excited to restrain himself to walking. It was so beautiful that he just had to see it all. The white snow covering the ground, the tall trees surrounding them and an opening ahead that enticed him to figure out what had beyond it. He sprinted as fast as he could, until tripping in his own feet and falling down. Thankfully, the snow was comfortable enough, so no harm was done.

"hey kid. need a hand?" Said a deep voice coming from ahead of Frisk. Looking up, he saw the figure that seemingly appeared out of nowhere. A somewhat short skeleton wearing a winter coat, some shorts and slippers. He was smiling, so that was welcoming.

Giving his hand, the skeleton pulled him upwards and Frisk was standing again. Before anyone could even say anything, Toriel came shortly after, huffing and puffing. While she was fast, carrying Frisk's bag and her things was burdening. "My child, are you all right? I saw you falling down, so I came to help you and... Oh..."

Toriel froze for a moment, before calmly waving at the stranger before her. "Hello! My name is Toriel. You are?" She said looking amicably at the skeleton.

"wait... this voice... you were the lady behind that door the whole time?" he asked, incredulous.

Toriel's eyes lit up as he talked. "I recognize your voice as well! Yes, it was me, so you must be the one who started the Knock-Knock jokes!"

"yeah. name is sans, by the way." Sans replied and put his hands back in his pockets. "i did not expect to see you." He continued.

"although i am glad, i must admit i am a bit... confused about why you decided to leave all of a sudden." Sans tilted his head slightly to look at Frisk. "specially with the kid, given all that we already talked in between puns." He continued, pointing at kid, who was already entertaining himself playing with a snow pile.

Toriel scratched her head a bit and looked a bit nervous. "Well... It's a bit hard to explain..." She said, rolling her eyes and taking a deep breath.

"The short version is that Frisk needs to leave the underground. I did not want them to leave, as... you know..." Toriel said, leaving the sentence hanging with its subtext. Sans nodded at her to continue. "... That's without considering how they still are not even old enough to be traveling on their own! So I thought that maybe, it would be for the best if I went along with him to explore the rest of the underground, and so, here we are." Toriel finished her thoughts, sighing in worry.

Sans looked at her speechless for a second, before finally talking again. "wow. seems tough... well, i could always help. i did promise after all." Sans said with a wink. "don't worry, i am really good at taking care of people. i am a sentry at the snowdin station, so i can cover for you two along the way until waterfall."

"Oh, that would be delightful. Thank you, Sans!" Toriel beamed with gratitude in possibly one of the warmest smiles ever conceived.

"no problem. i just wanted to ask a small favor in return, if that's not much trouble for you." Sans replied, facial expression slightly tensing up, but never abandoning his seemingly unbreakable smile.

"Sure, whatever we can do to return the favor!" Toriel replied excitedly.

Sans' smile returned to its more relaxed form. "thanks. thing is... i told you about my brother, papyrus, didn't i?" Toriel nodded in response. "well, he has been down lately, so i thought that maybe if he could see a human, the kid in this case, it would cheer him up. but don't worry, he is harmless. even if he tries not to be." sans quickly said before Toriel had the chance to interrupt at the mere mention of Frisk being seen.

Toriel looked annoyed and uncertain. "I don't think... I..." She looked at the short skeleton, looking expectantly at her, despite his overall nonchalant attitude. "Fine... I will trust you." Toriel sighed and smiled meekly, despite still being unsure of what would happen. "When we'll- _Huff_ \- meet him?" Toriel gasped slightly for air, after Frisk tackled her as he attempted to hug her, knocking the wind out of her. The bags were heavy, but she refused to let it show, or else Frisk would ask to carry it again and she was pretty sure he would just lose it along the way again.

"need some help?" Offered sans, noticing her struggle with the bags.

"As a matter of fact, I would appreciate it." Toriel replied thankful.

"ok, right over there, there is a box. just leave your things there." Sans pointed the opening in the woods. It would take some more walking, but it was close enough. "want to do anything before we head off?" He asked.

Toriel just straightened up and held Frisk's hand. "No, we are all packed up and said goodbye to everyone in the ruins. Just lead the way so you can ensure no other sentries will try to catch Frisk." She said, although gently asking, fierce as the guardian she was.

 _'sheesh, guess she REALLY wanted for me to look after them at every second.'_ Sans thought, cringing inwardly a bit at the thought of babysitting Frisk all the time. _'still too much effort..'_ "ok, just follow me." Sans said, as they walked further away from the RUINS gate.

They passed Sans sentry post after the bridge, with only a short stop so he could get a few bottles of ketchup and put in his pockets. Frisk asked for some, but Toriel's hidden glare encouraged Sans not to share, as 'condiments were not a good meal for a child'.

Shortly after leaving the more isolated part of the Snowdin woods, they reached the crossroad and Toriel spotted the box.

"ok, just leave it there." Sans pointed out. Toriel furrowed her eyebrows in confusion, looking at the minuscule box. "just trust me and leave it there." He completed.

Shrugging, Toriel deposited half-heartedly the bags inside. It slid right in, being quickly swallowed by it, still having more space to put stuff.

"How did you...?" Toriel looked flabbergasted.

"you asked me to look after whoever came out from the ruins if someone ever left, so i decided to put some neat things to help them along the way. i placed some boxes in some different places in the underground to make things easier. whatever you deposit in one box, you can retrieve at any other box." Sans explained. "i can't be everywhere at once, so i had to do something about it" He winked as he finished his sentence, shrugging and putting his hands back in his pockets.

"Wow! That's so cool! I didn't know monsters could do that!" Frisk shouted in amazement, peering inside the box, looking at its much bigger insides.

"...Neither did I..." Toriel said, slightly confused and narrowing her eyes questioning what she just had witnessed.

Sans averted his gaze, closed his eyes for a second and spoke. "... we all know different tricks don't we? let's just say that this is my own." Toriel stood in silence, still wondering what was that about, but obviously noticing his unwillingness to explain anything. She picked up Frisk so he would stay quiet for a bit.

"still, i wonder what papyrus is up to. by now, he should have appeared." Sans asked, just before the sound of snow being crunched was heard in the distance, approaching as time passed.

"SANS! YOU'RE NOT IN YOUR POST, ARE YOU?" A voice echoed in the distance. As the footsteps grew closer, a much taller skeleton appeared, wearing a weird clothing, made of a red scarf, a chestplate, trousers and some gloves and boots. "Why aren't you patro-" Papyrus stopped halfway with surprise upon looking at Toriel. He looked confused and stared at the scene. Sans standing besides Toriel while she held Frisk in her arms. As his jaw dropped, Papyrus exclaimed: "WHA...? ... ASGORE! WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE IN SNOWDIN? WAIT, IS THAT A HUMAN? SANS? YOU CAPTURED A HUMAN AND DELIVERED TO ASGORE WHILE I WAS LOOKING FOR UNDYNE?" Papyrus shouted still in disbelief. "BUT I THOUGHT THAT I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS WOULD..." Papyrus eyes teared up. Frisk looked thoroughly confused, Toriel even more so.

"pap-" Sans attempted to speak before being interrupted by his over excited skeleton brother.

"NO, IT DOESN'T MATTER. I AM PROUD OF YOU FOR HAVING CAPTURED A HUMAN, SANS!" Papyrus said, as he began to cry. "YOU STOPPED BEING LAZY AND CAPTURED A HUMAN! I CAN BARELY BELIEVE IT!" Papyrus stopped crying and frowned a bit. "ALTHOUGH YOU WERE SO LAZY YOU HAD TO CALL ASGORE ALL THEY WAY FROM THE CASTLE. HE WALKED SO FAR THAT HE STRIPPED OFF HIS ARMOR AND SHAVED HIS BEARD TO GO THROUGH THE HOTLANDS!  HE EVEN HAD TO WEAR A DRESS! SANS... SHAME ON YOU!" Papyrus started scolding Sans.

"Papyrus, I'm not-" Toriel began, but Papyrus continued before she even had the chance to talk.

"AND HE EVEN LOST HIS VOICE AND NOW SOUNDS LIKE A WOMAN! NO OFFENSE, YOUR MAJESTY." Papyrus quickly said to Toriel before turning back to Sans. "BUT REGARDLESS, YOU DID A WELL JOB." Papyrus quickly returned to his cheerful attitude "BY THE WAY, YOU LOOK AWFULLY GOOD CROSS-DRESSING, YOUR MAJESTY. PERHAPS YOU SHOULD DO IT MORE OFTEN!"

"papyrus." Sans said calmly.

"YES, SANS?"

"that's not asgore."

"WHAT? BUT... THEY ARE FURRY LIKE ASGORE, HAVE HORNS LIKE ASGORE, THEY... WELL, THEY DON'T HAVE ASGORE'S TRIDENT, ARMOR, OR BEARD AND THEY DO WEAR A DRESS AND SPEAK IN A HIGHER PITCH..." Papyrus questioned. "BUT EVERYTHING ELSE LOOKS LIKE ASGORE!"

"well papyrus, just because some people look alike, doesn't mean they are the same. don't you remember dogamy and dogaressa?"

"... YOU MEAN THAT I WILL HAVE TO MEMORIZE MORE PEOPLE WHO LOOK A LIKE?" Papyrus whined. Frisk was chuckling during the whole dialogue, seemingly entertained by the brothers antics. Toriel couldn't help but smile a bit, although she was slightly annoyed to be mixed up with Asgore.

"yes. this is not asgore, this is someone else."

"OH..." Said Papyrus dejectedly before quickly standing up again. BUT WAIT! YOU CAPTURED A HUMAN! IF THAT'S NOT ASGORE, THEN I STILL HAVE TIME! YOU! NOT-ASGORE! RELEASE THE HUMAN SO THAT I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, CAN CAPTURE THE HUMAN AND DELIVER IT MYSELF." Papyrus posed heroically, finishing his speech.

Toriel held Frisk a little closer, upon hearing those words. She was terribly afraid of the possibility that Asgore could get his hands on Frisk. She did not even want to think about it.

She opened her mouth, but before she could protest, Sans stared at her, silently telling her with the little facial expression he had so far, that there would be no problem.

Toriel immediately recognized the non verbal communication and decided to trust her friend. She let go of Frisk and he was now standing in front of Papyrus.

"WONDERFUL! NOW I CAN PROPERLY CAPTURE THE HUMAN! SANS! COME WITH ME! I WILL NEED YOUR HELP WITH MY PUZZLES!" Papyrus called.

"you're not gonna capture him now?" Asked Sans.

"OF COURSE NOT. THE HUMAN HAS JUST BEEN RELEASED. THEY PROBABLY ARE EXPECTING TO BE CAPTURED AGAIN. WE MUST WAIT THEM TO LOWER THEIR GUARD SO I CAN CAPTURE THE HUMAN AND BECOME CAPTAIN OF THE ROYAL GUARD! COME ON, SANS, IT'S NOT TOO COMPLICATED." Papyrus explained to his short brother.

"yeah, clever as usual, bro. why don't you go ahead and starts setting up the puzzles? i'll take a shortcut." Sans winked.

Papyrus looked distressed, but just sighed in annoyance. "NO WONDER YOU'RE SO LAZY. IF YOU AT LEAST TOOK THE NORMAL ROUTE FOR ONCE, MAYBE YOU'D BUILD MORE STAMINA TO WORK PROPERLY. JUST DON'T TAKE TOO LONG!" Papyrus finished before sprinting away.

Toriel looked slightly frightened and confused, but still glad things were ok for now. Frisk on the other hand just looked entertained.

"well, i supposed i'll have to help papyrus to set up his puzzles. don't worry, it's nothing dangerous. you saw him trying to capture the kid." sans just stood there, smiling, trying to reassure Toriel. There was no success in his attempt.

"it'll be all right. i did make that promise to you, didn't i?" Sans said, finally making Toriel relax a bit.

"This is going to be fun! I love puzzles!" Frisk said excited. He obviously was enjoying it a whole lot.

"yeah, kid. i'm sure it will." Sans said, patting Frisk's head. "gotta go now, see ya later." Sans bid farewell, walking towards the river.

"Sans, that's not where your brother went." Warned Toriel.

"i know, i'm just taking a shortcut, you two follow his path. i'll meet you there." He said before taking a detour to the opposite direction where papyrus went, leaving eye sight after going around the corner.

"Oh, boy! I'm looking forward to this!" Frisk was hopping and fidgeting in excitement. "This is going to be awesome!"

...

A golden flower popped up in the distance, staring intently at the child with a demonic grin.

" **YOU HAVE NO IDEA...** "

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we're done with chapter 4. I apologize if it seemed shorter/plainer than the other chapters, but truth be told, this chapter was one of the hardest to write for several reasons. Among them, college combined with daily responsibilities have taken my time and my energy to write. Also, I had no idea on how to make this chapter work, as I am good with climaxes, but lesser stuff is out of my reach. Regardless, seeing the finished project fills me with joy.


	5. Snowy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN UNDERTALE OR ANY OF ITS CHARACTERS.

They were still confused about what just happened. Sure, they were perfectly aware that Papyrus would try to catch Frisk and that Sans would seemingly help them cross the snowy fields without getting caught, but the duo's dynamics were still a mystery. 

"Well, that was certainly something..." Said Toriel, as she thought over her new companions. Still unsure of what would happen, she went to move on, when she noticed Frisk walking away on his own towards the river.

Toriel quickly rushed towards the curious child, asking "My child, where are you going? We're supposed to meet them straight ahead."

"Mom, look! There is something at the river!" Frisk replied excitedly, pointing towards the unknown object.

Frisk quickly reached the edge, staring at the mysterious object in front of him. "Mom, what's that?"

"That's a fishing rod, Frisk. It's used to catch fish." Toriel explained, quickly embracing Frisk and dragging him away from the river's edge. "Now, don't run off on your own again. You can't even swim properly yet!" Toriel scolded lightly the now embarrassed kid.

"I'm sorry..." Replied Frisk apologetically, looking at her with puppy eyes. Watching the child act in such an adorable manner was Toriel's weakness, and then she quickly kissed Frisk's cheek while smiling. "It's ok, my child. Quite the eager child, aren't you? Always running around, exploring everywhere, never stopping even at home!" She began chuckling, recalling memories of their live at HOME. "Which reminds me... show me your finger. It's probably time to take those bandages away."

Frisk bashfully gave her his hand. It was covered in pink bandages. Toriel enjoyed how Frisk enjoyed bright colors, pink among those. His favorite was still cyan, however.

Not wasting any time, she gently plucked the bandages which have shown some darker spots where Frisk was hurt. It wouldn't scar, but it'd take a while to vanish. "You're so adorable, my child." Said Toriel with a motherly smile, fawning over her kid.

"Mooom!" Frisk protested, slamming his feet, only to bury his feet. He attempted to get up, but fell back again in the process. "I'm not going to try to pet the cactus again!" Frisk pouted, attempting to get up. "It's not funny! You even got all worried!"

Toriel chuckled. "Of course I did! I got worried when I heard you crying all the way from my room. Still, I can't help but love how you wanted to pet the cactus when you thought it was lonely." Toriel picked Frisk up and cuddled with him, who blushed in response, but smiled along.

Not too long after that, Frisk sneezed.

"Oh dear, it has gotten cold now, hasn't it? Let us get you your coat in the bag." She put Frisk down, as she reached for her handbag looking for his coat. "I told you would need a coat, by the way." Toriel bragged, causing Frisk to pout in annoyance of being proven wrong.

"Ok, sheesh!" Frisk continued, still pouting childishly, but shrugging it off. Holding Toriel's firm, big and warm hand, he carried on. Nothing brought more comfort to him than holding her hand. The sense of protection and affection from it was SOUL filling.

However, they both got quite startled when Toriel's phone began to ring. Frisk was beaming with curiosity as usual, but Toriel was only confused. Who'd be calling her? She didn't recall having given anyone her new number. Still, with the phone's constant pestering, she decided to pick it up.

"Hello?" Toriel said, heart filled with uncertainty, despite being obviously curious about it herself.

An indescribable voice spoke on the other side of the phone "Can I talk to G..."

A short silence followed the call, before the mysterious caller instantly continued "Oh, is this the wrong number?"

Toriel's face contorted in confusion. "I'm sorry, who-" 

The caller suddenly interrupted her, singing as music began to play on the phone. _"Oh, it's the wrong number! The wrong number song! We're very very sorry we got it wrong!"_

Toriel just frowned as she listened to the song, Frisk on the other hand just staring at her curious of what was happening.

 _"_ _Oh, it's the wrong number! The wrong numb_ _-..."_ The caller stopped halfway, causing Toriel to look even more confused. "Wait... give me a second." The voice on the other side spoke. Unidentified noises were heard on the other side of the line.

"Oh... I'm sorry. I-"

"Yes, I get it, this is the wrong number, isn't it?" Toriel just said, slightly annoyed because of the call, but not wanting to be rude, still trying to get along in the caller's antics.

"No, it... it's actually the opposite."

Toriel lifter her eyebrow in confusion. "Excuse me?"

"Actually... this IS the right number. You can talk to him." The voice said somberly.

"Wait, I can talk to who?" Toriel just got more and more worried. Frisk was looking at her unsure of what was happening, obviously feeling left out.

"Please send him my regards and have a good day."

"What? Send who-?" Toriel said before being cut off by the end of the call.

Toriel frowned looking to her cellphone in confusion, as did Frisk who was looking at her curious of the unknown events that he just witnessed.

"Who was it?" Asked the curious child.

"I... don't really know. They just hung up. I don't know who called or why." Toriel explained to Frisk.

Frisk puffed his cheeks in annoyance. "That wasn't nice! They should apologize!"

Toriel smiled as she pat Frisk a bit. "It's ok, Frisk. It wasn't nice, but I'm sure they meant no harm." Said Toriel.

Frisk pouted in response. "Well, YOU don't let go without apologizing if I do something bad..."

Toriel looked sternly at Frisk. "My child, you must apologize when you do something bad. That's of utmost importance." Toriel said.

"But he didn't apologize!" Yelled the child in response.

Toriel looked at Frisk for a brief moment, before crouching so she'd look him in the eye. "Frisk... Sometimes, people will do bad things, they won't apologize, but you should forgive them anyway."

Frisk looked back at her, confused. "But why?"

Toriel simply smiled gently and replied "Forgiving is not a matter of they wanting forgiveness. It's about having enough love in your heart to let the hurt go and move on." She said, poking at his chest, where his heart is.

Frisk stared at Toriel for a few seconds, before Toriel continued. "It's ok if you don't understand right now. One day you will." She said, grabbing her child's hand as they walked forward, as Frisk mulled over what she said.

 

* * *

 

As they carried on, they finally reached the bridge before Snowdin. Toriel found strange that they have not met anyone along the way. Usually, many monsters from Snowdin strolled around here, but for some weird reason, no one was found. Even the doghouse was empty. Still, she was glad for not getting in trouble with anyone else, despite wondering where Papyrus and Sans could be.

They were crossing the bridge to Snowdin as she finished her thoughts, when they heard Papyrus voice in the distance, shouting.

"NYEH! SANS! YOU ARE LATE AGAIN! WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN? I WAS LOOKING FOR YOU ALL OVER THE PLACE!" Papyrus yelled annoyed.

"been busy. something popped up, so i had to fix something somewhere else." Sans shrugged as he replied, smiling like usual.

"ALL THE PUZZLES WERE DEACTIVATED AND I COULD NOT FIND YOU! NOW THEY'LL BE HERE SOO-" He stopped halfway when he spotted Frisk and Toriel, respectively beaming in excitement and sweating a bit in worry.

"OH! HUMAN! NOT-ASGORE! YOU'RE HERE! JUST ON TIME!" Papyrus smiled as he greeted them from afar, before frowning once more "... UNLIKE A CERTAIN BROTHER OF MINE THAT PROMISED HE'D HELP ME SET THE PUZZLES BEFORE YOU ARRIVE!" Papyrus stomped furiously as he grumbled on, while sans once again shrugged nonchalantly, just before looking at them once more. "AT LEAST THIS TRAP IS READY! I'LL BE ABLE TO CAPTURE THE HUMAN WITH THIS, SO I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, CAN FINALLY JOIN THE ROYAL GUARD!" He stated, posing gloriously and cape flying from an unknown wind source.

Frisk nodded and prepared himself to finish crossing the bridge, just as Toriel held him by the shoulder and solemnly looked at Frisk. "Frisk, we probably should go." Said Toriel, looking concerned. Papyrus was standing there, readying whatever shenanigan he may had prepared. She wanted to leave as soon as possible. Sure, it was Sans' brother, but he was still attempting to capture Frisk, something she was willing to let happen.

"NYEH HEH HEH!" laughed Papyrus. "YOU DON'T STAND A CHANCE OF ESCAPING, HUMAN!" He threatened, as a cannon, spears, torches and several other devices popped up everywhere, aiming towards the now frightened child, who was hugging Toriel's dress. "AS SOON AS I ACTIVATE IT, YOU WILL HAVE NO CHANCES OF ESCAPING!" Yelled Papyrus, readying himself to press a button.

Silence was the only noticeable thing from the scenario. Frisk was still hugging Toriel, but was no longer afraid, just expectant.

"er... this doesn't look very activated to me." Sans commented. "YES, I CANNOT ACTIVATE IT NOW. NON-ASGORE IS STILL TOO CLOSE TO THE HUMAN." Explained Papyrus. Upon hearing those words, Toriel hugged Frisk tighter than ever, but relaxed, knowing he wouldn't activate his trap with the chance of misfiring on monsters.

"NOT-ASGORE, IF YOU DON'T MIND. COULD YOU PLEASE TAKE SOME DISTANCE FROM THE HUMAN? I NEED TO CAPTURE THEM, BUT IF YOU STAY TOO CLOSE, I CANNOT ACTIVATE MY INCREDIBLY WONDERFUL HUMAN-CAPTURING TRAP." Papyrus asked expectantly and over excited.

Toriel looked at Frisk, and had an idea. Winking at him, he noticed it and decided to play along, giggling faintly so he would not be heard. She took a few steps away from Frisk, with the child following her as close as her own shadow, leaving little to no space between them.

"NO, NO, NO, NO! STILL-NOT-ASGORE, THE HUMAN IS FOLLOWING YOU!" Said Papyrus exasperated. "THEY NEED TO STAY ON THE BRIDGE! HUMAN! STOP FOLLOWING THE-ONE-THAT-IS-NOT-ASGORE SO I CAN CAPTURE YOU!" Demanded Papyrus.

"No!" replied Frisk, playfully sticking their tongue out in victory.

"WHAT?! UNBELIEVABLE! THE HUMAN IS MUCH BETTER THAN I THOUGHT. I SUPPOSE EVEN MY MARVELOUS TRAP WON'T WORK ON SUCH STRONG WILLED CREATURES. VERY WELL... BEGONE WITH ALL OF THIS. IT TAKES UP TOO MUCH SPACE, ANYWAY." Continued Papyrus, shooing the deadly gauntlet of several traps. "BUT DO NOT FORGET HUMAN! I'LL CAPTURE YOU! DON'T YOU FORGE-"

A subtle, but persistent alarm clock goes off.

"hey, it's time for lunch." Sans comments, interrupting Papyrus before he regained his train of thought.

"ALREADY? WELL, WE BETTER HURRY UP, THEN! HUMAN! PSEUDO-ASGORE! COME! WE ARE GOING TO HAVE LUNCH! WE CAN'T LET THE HUMAN GET HUNGRY WHEN WE CAPTURE THEM, NOW CAN WE? LET'S GO! SNOWDIN IS RIGHT OVER HERE!" Finished Papyrus, quickly sprinting to the town ahead.

Exhaling deeply, Toriel finished crossing the bridge along with Frisk and then greeted Sans.

"i told you it would be all right. papyrus is a really cool guy. he wouldn't hurt the kid." Sans said.

Toriel let herself smile and chuckle a bit. "Yes... now that the tension is gone, you brother surely is passionate about what he does, isn't he?"

"yeah, he is the best. hey, we better get going. papyrus is already waiting for us. let's go to grillby's." Sans said, leading the way.

It was really close, as Papyrus said. They finally reached the quaint, adorable town of Snowdin. Monsters were around, living their lives normally. Although it wasn't any day in particular, they were going around and preparing some gifts beneath the tree. Gyftrot had already been appeased, but they still wanted to make up for it, despite the fact that the most obvious way was to remove the decorations.

Frisk was astonished with the pretty lights from the tree, but didn't pay attention too long, as his growling stomach was already demanding for food, since they have been walking all morning.

"hey papyrus" Called Sans from a few feet away from Papyrus, who was standing in front of their home. "ready to go to grillby's?"

"WHAT?! SANS! YOU KNOW I HATE THERE!" Protested Papyrus. "THE FOOD IS TOO GREASY AND EVERYTHING IS A MESS! WHY DON'T WE HAVE SOME OF MY SPAGHETTI?"

Sans looked at Frisk and Toriel, shivered a bit, before looking back at his brother. "i'm sorry pap, i already told them that we would eat on grillby's. can't back down on my word, you know?" Sans smoothly avoided the incoming incident with Papyrus cooking.

"OH..." Papyrus was disappointed, but consented regardless. "OK THEN, LET'S ALL GO TO GRILLBY'S..." He finished his thoughts as he dragged himself to the so hated restaurant.

Inside wasn't as bad as Toriel was led to believe from Papyrus reaction. It was nice, even. The ambiance was pleasant, everyone looked nice and the food smelled good. They all took a seat on the counter, close to Grillby, following Sans' steps. Papyrus, despite being obviously annoyed, was still in a good mood overall.

"so, do you want a burger?" Sans offered the eager child. "i'll pay for the kid's meal, so you don't have to worry about that." He said toward Toriel with a wink.

"Oh, thank you, Sans. That's very nice of you, although eating hamburger is not a healthy meal, so Frisk will have to pass." Toriel declined, making Frisk pout and incessantly beg her.

"Mom, pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease! I want it..." Frisk asked. Toriel considered for a second. "Ok, but only this once. Tomorrow you're eating something healthier."

"YAY! THANK YOU!" Frisk replied, hugging her and looking at the flaming bartender, as he left to bring the food.

"WAIT, WHAT IS A 'FRISK'?" Asked a curious Papyrus.

"that's the human's name, pap."

"YOU MEAN THAT THE HUMAN IS NOT CALLED HUMAN?" Papyrus gasped in horror.

"well, they are a human, but they are called 'frisk'." Explained a nonchalant Sans, smiling as usual. Toriel couldn't help but chuckle over their interaction.

"WAIT, ARE THEY A HUMAN OR ARE THEY A FRISK? I'M GETTING MIXED MESSAGES, SANS!"

"i think we should focus on the meal, as it just arrived." Sans changed the subject, as Grillby arrived with a large portion of fries and a few burgers for everyone.

Everyone got their own burger and got ready to eat.

"bone-apetit" Joked Sans, causing Toriel and Frisk to chuckle some more.

"SAAAAAAANS!" Screamed Papyrus in annoyance, causing Frisk to roll over and Toriel howl with laughter.

* * *

The meal didn't last long. Sans and Toriel were talking incessantly, while Frisk played with his toys and Papyrus reluctantly finished his burger.

After finally swallowing the last piece of greasy food, Papyrus got off his seat and walked towards Frisk.

"HUMAN FRISK! OR IS IT A FRISK HUMAN...? DOESN'T MATTER. I NEED TO- OOOOOHHH! YOU HAVE THE METTATON ACTION FIGURE!" Papyrus said excitedly as he witnessed Frisk playing with it. "CAN I PLAY WITH IT?" He asked.

Frisk nodded and handed over the doll. Papyrus held it and made some fake robotic sounds, before stopping and looking at Frisk once more. "SANS TOLD ME IT THAT ROYAL GUARDS CANNOT PLAY INDOORS, SO WE SHOULD LEAVE. COME WITH ME, HUMAN!" Papyrus offered his gloved hand and Frisk promptly took it. They walked outside as Sans and Toriel were too entertained to notice them leaving.

They walked east, until the outskirts of the town and started to play with Frisk's toys.

However, Papyrus stopped halfway through it, causing Frisk to look at him and stare in confusion.

"FRISK-UMAN, ALLOW ME TO TELL YOU ABOUT SOME COMPLEX FEELINGS. FEELINGS LIKE... THE DESIRE TO HAVE A COOL, SMART PERSON THINK YOU ARE NICE, WHO CAN PLAY WITH YOU WHENEVER YOU WANT." Papyrus began talking with a more serious, despite still looking goofy, tone.

"YOU SEEM TO BE A NICE PERSON, AS MY BROTHER WANTS TO LOOK AFTER YOU, DESPITE BEING A SENTRY. SINCE YOU ARE SO NICE, I THINK THAT I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL BE GRANT YOU MY FRIEN... ..."

He stopped halfway and shook his head, visibly torn by his thoughts.

"NO... NO, THIS IS ALL WRONG! I CAN'T BE YOUR FRIEND! YOU ARE A HUMAN! ... OR A FRISK... OR A HUMAN FRISK! ANYWAY, I MUST CAPTURE YOU SO I CAN FULFILL MY LIFELONG DREAM! POWER! POPULAR! PRESTIGIOUS! THAT'S PAPYRUS! THE NEWEST MEMBER... OF THE ROYAL GUARD!" Finished the tall skeleton, getting ready for battle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was one of the hardest to make. Even harder yet was to re-write it.
> 
> Many things had to be rewritten along the way, making it much harder than I wanted. At least I have now finished an I can deliver it to you guys.
> 
> Thank you for your patience. I hope you enjoy this chapter as much as you enjoyed the others.


	6. Bonetrousle

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again. Welcome to my humble's creation 6th part. This was painfully hard to write, given how busy I was during these last weeks with college and some side projects. Thankfully, I managed to finish it yesterday and I finished proof-reading it roughly 30 minutes before submitting this. I'm proud with how it came up and I hope you can find it in your heart to enjoy it as well.
> 
> DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN UNDERTALE OR ANY REFERENCED MATERIAL IN THIS MEDIUM OTHER THAN THE PLOT.

"so, what happened then?" Asked Sans, enjoying his bottle of ketchup as he listened to Toriel's stories, who was laughing incessantly.

Still gasping for air, she barely could form a sentence. "That's- heh... - That's when Frisk came back home naked, hopping with other froggits, claiming that he was 'the new froggit in the ruins'!" Toriel came back howling with laughter. "You should have seen him trying to mimic their croaking, it was adorable!" She said, finally catching her breath with a huge contemplative smile on her face.

"heh. seems like you two had some fun times." Sans said, drinking some more of the ketchup bottle before putting along the stack of other empty bottles. "this actually reminds when papyrus-"

Sans was interrupted by a pair of paws nudging at his shoulder. Upon looking around, he finds Dogamy and Dogaressa looking at him.

"Hello Sans!" "(Hey Sans)" Greeted the dog couple, holding hands and looking at Sans inquisitive. Upon noticing the members of the royal guard, Toriel turned away from them and slipped away, hoping to go unnoticed.

"sup. do you need anything?" Asked sans, fully turning around and drinking some more ketchup from another bottle, while a distressed grillby ran around behind the counter opening another box of ketchup bottles.

"We still want to know what happened." Dogamy started. "(Or at least if we can return to our posts.)" Dogaressa continued. "We DID got kicked out of our posts for no apparent reason." Finished the dog husband.

Sans tried to shrug the question off, hoping to avert their attention. For his misfortune, they were bent on knowing what happened. Sans knew all to well how relentless they'd become when intrigued with something, making him quickly give up hope of not explaining the situation.

Sans scratched his skull a bit. "look. i never asked any of you anything, so can we just say that when i asked of you to leave your posts until i reached snowdin was for a good reason?"

Dogamy and Dogaressa looked at each other from beneath their hoods, still looking warily to Sans. "Are you by any chance covering for a human?" "(You know that if Undyne ever finds out, she'll tear you apart, don't you?)" They said in unison.

Sans looked down. He was clearly uncomfortable, which was a rare sight for the nonchalant skeleton. "you can already return to your posts, so it doesn't matter, does it?" Sans tried one last time to avert it, but they didn't buy it. He sighed in defeat shortly after. "...i can't explain everything. all i can say is that i'll make up for you later. let's just say that, despite hating making promises, i made one and now i've got to keep it." Sans looked somberly at the couple, before sighing and returning to his half serious half goofy attitude. "otherwise someone will have a BONE to pick with me." Sans joked, ruining the serious mood.

The married dogs chuckled a bit. Sans got happy with his diversion having worked. "(Ok, we won't ask anymore. You're a nice guy Sans, so that's why we agreed.)" Dogaressa said gently, preparing to leave. "Best of luck with whatever you're doing, Sans. Take your time and come back so we can talk some more later on! I'll tell the other dogs they can return to their posts." Dogamy bid farewell and they both left.

Sans let out a sigh of relief, before returning to his more cheerful mood. He drank some more ketchup and put it back on the counter.

"they're gone, tori. you can come up now."

A loud crashing noise was heard, coming from the door in the distance, followed by an 'ouch' and some indiscernible cursing.

The door opened, with Toriel and several cleaning products and utensils fell on the ground, causing some curious eyes to look at the mess. Before anyone could comment on it, Sans quickly sat on the whoopee cushion he had set and blurted out a pun, drawing everyone's attention while Toriel got up and put everything back on its place at the staff's office. Still rubbing her head from the impact, she quickly rushed off to her seat, as everyone looked back to their own tables.

"That hurt... I'm so sorry, Grillby. Thank you again for letting me hide in the staff room." Toriel apologized.

Grillby nodded politely and just went on washing the dishes. He just burnt the food remains with his hands and absorbed the ashes and soon all the plates would be clean again. Despite not using water, no one questioned how hygienic he was.

"well, it turned out a lot better than i expected." Sans said, as he ate some more fries and finally let go of the empty ketchup bottle. Grillby without missing a beat, slid another bottle from him, which he caught skillfully. "i mean, no one noticed you or whoever did, didn't recognize you. I guess not wearing that heavy crown and all those jewels make a difference, huh?"

"Yes, it does..." Toriel sighed, memories of her previous possessions coming to mind, along some bittersweet memories. "Thank you too Sans... I didn't want people questioning my choices yet... I'm sure that if I made a public appearance in the middle of the town, everyone would ask me things to no end, so thank you for putting up with this for me, Sans." Toriel thanked as she took some more fries from the plate and munched them up.

"no problem. after all, it's always a pleasure to help you. the kid seems nice too, so it's no trouble."

Upon hearing those words, Toriel's eyes widened, filled with shock from the realization. She looked to both empty seats and almost yelled at Sans. "Sans. Where are Frisk and Papyrus?" Toriel spoke firmly, using every ounce of her strength not to shout and draw everyone's attention.

Sans looked around for a bit, before closing his eyes for a brief moment, looking directly at her and saying "pap is probably trying to capture Frisk, but it'll be okay. he's harmless." Sans said before taking another sip of ketchup.

Toriel lost all her composure and grabbed Sans by the collar of his jacket and making him spill ketchup all over the table. "PAPYRUS IS WHAT?!"

* * *

 

"I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, AM SUCCESSFULLY GOING TO CAPTURE YOU!" Shouted the skeleton with all his might as he prepared his bone attacks.

Frisk was more amused than anything, curious to see what Papyrus had in store for him. He seemed to be having a good time, so he just waited to see what would happen.

"YOU BETTER BE READY FOR IT! HERE COMES... A REGULAR ATTACK!" Papyrus said as he made an overly dramatic pose and launched a feeble attack. It was a small and slow bone trailing its path headed towards Frisk, so all he had to do was sidestep, although he faked tremendous effort and drama in dodging it for the sake of the skeleton.

"WHAT? YOU'RE EXHAUSTED ON MY FIRST ATTACK? SURELY, YOU STAND NO CHANCE AGAINST THE GREAT PAPYRUS. FOR THE SAKE OF FAIR PLAY, LET US TRY SOMETHING EASIER THEN." Said Papyrus as he sent an even slower bone attack towards Frisk. It took no less than 1 minute to cross the distance between the two of them. Frisk simply hopped over the attack as it slowly faded afterward.

"GOOD JOB HUMAN! NOW, LET US TRY THE FIRST ATTACK AGAIN!"

Sending another regular attack, Frisk simply sidestepped it gracefully. Staring at the giggling child, he straightened up and positioned himself.

"AMAZING! YOU SEEM TO BE GETTING THE HAND OF THIS, FRISK-AN! NOW THAT YOU ALREADY GOT THE HANG OF IT, LET THE GREAT BATTLE BETWEEN PAPYRUS AND HUMAN, THE FRISK BEGIN!"

Frisk stopped giggling when he noticed the small wave of bones coming towards him. He made some effort, but just barely managed to dodge it. They looked at Papyrus for a while, a bit confused, but slowly realizing that they may actually be in real danger this time.

While at first he thought it was funny, he now no longer found amusement in the skeleton threatening him with a big, innocent smile. Frisk sidestepped a couple of times, just fast enough to dodge the now increasing barrage of bone attacks being thrown at him. He didn't need to be hit to know that it would probably hurt a lot.

"SEEMS LIKE YOU ARE LEARNING TOO FAST. YOU'RE GOOD. MAYBE A BIT TOO GOOD. WELL THEN, LET'S SEE IF YOU CAN HANDLE MY FABLED "BLUE ATTACK!"

As Papyrus finished his sentence, An incoming storm of blue bones came flying towards Frisk, who could only cower and stand immobile as the bones phased right through him. Shortly after, he lifted his head and cheered as he realized not a single attack harmed him.

"Ha! You missed! I'm perfectly o-" Frisk said before trying to take a step ahead. He realized that he was feeling much heavier than before. Upon looking to his SOUL, he noticed it was shining a strong hue of blue.

"YOU'RE BLUE NOW. THAT'S MY ATTACK! NYEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH!"

Frisk was now terrified. Papyrus, oblivious of the child's signals of discomfort just proceeded on the battle like nothing happened, using his regular attacks. Frisk was having a harder time dodging the bones than before. Sure, they weren't that fast or that tall, but they were already troublesome enough with free movement. Now that his SOUL was bound by Papyrus' attack, he was afraid he might get seriously injured.

"I CAN ALMOST TASTE MY FUTURE POPULARITY! PAPYRUS: HEAD OF THE ROYAL GUARD PAPYRUS: UNPARALLELED SPAGETTORE! UNDYNE WILL BE REALLY PROUD OF ME!" Papyrus monologued as he nonchalantly threw bones left and right in Frisk's direction, who was now using all the strength in his tiny body to be able to dodge his attacks, sweating really hard despite the cold weather due to the effort. "THE KING WILL TRIM A HEDGE IN THE SHAPE OF MY SMILE!" Papyrus said, taking a break as he took in his fantasies of greatness.

"STILL I HAVE TO CAPTURE YOU! FOR THE SAKE OF JOINING THE ROYAL GUARD! FOR BECOMING EVEN GREATER THAN I AM NOW! FOR ALL THE SPAGHETTI I'LL COOK FOR ASGORE AND MY FUTURE FRIENDS!" Papyrus said, positioning himself for another attack. Frisk was just barely catching his breath, already too exhausted to continue. Still, being captured was an unappealing thought to him, so he carried on.

"GIVE UP OR FACE MY... **SPECIAL ATTACK!** " Was all Frisk heard before seeing Papyrus posing dramatically as he felt the snow rumble.

* * *

 

"Hello again, Flowey! What can I do for you?" Said the woman, now crouching to look him in the eye.

"Well, I need a small favor of you..." Replied Flowey, looking downwards feigning embarrassment. "... there is this kid that I found lost in the underground. She is a really young girl, but was completely alone. Some monsters are trying to get her. I tried rationalizing with them... but..." The golden flower cried, attempting to get through her emotions.

"Oh no, that's terrible!" The woman now stood up, frowning at the thought of the lonely child. "Don't worry, they can stay at my neighbor's house, where I'm staying. Shyren is still feeling alone without her sister and I rarely appear, so having someone over will surely cheer her up." She said, reminiscing the Shyren crying the day before. "I wonder when Alphys will reply the letters..." She finished, putting her hand on her shell, as one would on their chin when thoughtful.

Flowey waved with his head, and slightly shrugged. "Who knows... Anyway, can I count on you for this favor?" Flowey asked, smiling expectantly.

"Sure! It'll be wonderful! It has been a while since Waterfall had new neighbors, so everyone will love it! Bring her whenever you can!" She replied excitedly.

"Excellent! KID! COME OVER! THEY AGREED! COME SEE YOUR NEW HOME!" Shouted Flowey into the alley. A small figure emerged from it, clinging to a handmade plush doll. It was really small, wearing a stripped dress slightly bigger than her own size. She had a mild tan and a bowl cut, but the hair was longer in her back. The bangs were long enough to hide her eyes, but whenever she shifted around, it could be seen her dark brown matte eyes, gleaming in the dark. She still had difficulty walking on her own, but without anyone's helping hand, she still made it on her own.

"... hi." The little girl said said, still nervous and fretting around. Clutching tighter to her doll, she gave a few more steps toward the Clam Woman. Upon sight, the Blue Shelled woman smiled softly and crouched once more to meet her eyes. Her eyes shone with a purity, despite the obvious fear they still held due to the discomfort of the new situation.

"Hello, sweetheart! My name is Claire. Me and my friend Shyren will look after you from now on!" She said warmly. Noticing the child's unwavering apprehension, she held her hand out and continued. "I know this can be a little frightening, but we just want to help you. I promise I'll look after you as if you were my own daughter."

The little girl finally looked slightly upward and looked at Claire face to face. She seemed to be smiling. Giggling and hiding her eyes behind her bangs, she secured her doll with one arm and extended her tiny hand to Claire's.

"... You going to be my mommy?" She asked, almost whispering.

Claire simply nodded, causing the girl to get closer, almost clinging. She hummed softly as Claire leaded the way. "I'm sure you'll enjoy your new home. For now, let's look for Shyren. You seem to like to sing, so you two will get along well!"

They walked away happily, as Flowey smiled upon the sight. Chuckling a bit, he was now grinning. " **Perfect. Everything is going as planned... Now, for the icing on the cake...** "

Flowey then, buried himself, vanishing from the scene.

* * *

 

"THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANCE... BEFORE MY SPECIAL ATTACK!" Papyrus said as he threw an intense barrage of bones toward Frisk. Frisk was completely exhausted, knees shaking and already puffing, desperate for air. For his misfortune, the cold air of Snowdin was cruel to his lungs, making him feel even worse for attempting to breath in harder.

He wasn't exactly comfortable when Papyrus got seemingly serious at first. Now that he was completely worn out, he had no idea what to do. Papyrys was unrelenting, while still nonchalantly blabbering about how much he wanted to join the royal guard and how he'd make spaghetti to all his future friends and post about it on the Undernet.

As Papyrus sent a few more waves of bone attacks, Frisk tried jumping over them. However, as he attempted to jump over his attack, his half-hearted effort caused his coat to get stuck in of the attacks. Tripping over it, he landed straight on a lesser bone attack, landing in it full force enough to break the attack into magic dust, causing a loud noise upon impact.

"OW!" Yelled Frisk in pain from the hit. It wasn't fatal, but it still hurt immensely. The snow helped on the fall, but the sturdiness from the attack was still commendable.

"NYEH HEH HEH! I KNEW THAT EARLIER OR LATER I WOULD GET YOU. NOW THAT THE BATTLE IS ALMOST OVER, IT'S TIME TO CAPTURE YOU!" Papyrus posed in his heroic stance, as the cold wind of Snowdin made his cape flail. Frisk was clutching to his wounded leg from the fall, holding back his tears as he looked up to meet the skeleton.

"BEHOLD...! MY SPECIAL ATTACK!" Papyrus said, changing his pose to a pose now almost dignified of a warrior. Picking up a long bone as one would pick a spear, he lifted it proudly in his flamboyant fashion to the skies. As the bone blinked, the ground began to shake. As what seemed to be millions of bones prodded from the snow, now floating and lining up aiming at Frisk, he realized it was a truly unavoidable attack.

Utterly terrified, he tried to back off, but his now injured leg gave out. Afraid to have broken a bone, the irony of the situation made him groan and moan in fear of the ever growing size of the attack. It was imminent and he was already freaked out.

"TASTE MY SPECIAL ATTACK!" Papyrus said, as a barrage of attacks hailed towards the child.

"NOOOOOOOOOO!" Was all Frisk could yell, before his voice broke as he fell on the ground, curling up and then wailing as hard as he could, tears falling freely from his face.

Upon hearing the infant's cry, Papyrus smiled faded immediately and all his attacks vanished inches from even touching his brown hair.

"HUMAN...?" Papyrus asked full of concern. Frisk was crying relentlessly, making Papyrus quickly approach them. "WHAT'S WRONG? DO NOT WORRY! YOU ARE WITH THE GREAT PAPYRUS! YOU'RE SAFE FROM HARM!" Tried to console the armored skeleton, frowning in worry.

Frisk was still crying, when Papyrus picked him up. He stopped for half a second when he got startled from the bony fingers lifting him to meet his eyes.

"THERE IS NO NEED TO CRY! I'M HERE FOR YOU!" Papyrus smiled brightly. "I MAY HAVE TRIED TO CAPTURE YOU FOR THE ROYAL GUARD, BUT THAT DOESN'T INVALIDATE ME FROM DOING THE OTHER DUTY ROYAL GUARDS ARE ASSIGNED FOR:" The tall skeleton stated proudly. Still sniffling, Frisk looked at Papyrus eye-sockets. Despite being empty, he could almost see sparkly and friendly looking eyes staring at him enthusiastically.

"PROTECTING EVERYONE!" Papyrus shouted excited. "ROYAL GUARDS ARE DEPENDABLE KNIGHTS WHO HELP EVERYONE! THAT'S WHY I WANT TO BE THE BEST THERE EVER IS! SO I CAN BE FRIENDS WITH EVERYONE!"

Frisk silently observed the enthusiastic monster in front of him, smiling brightly enough to outshine the sun. Upon hearing those words, a mixture of feelings started to brew inside of him. Without much energy to fight those back, he just gave in and started crying again.

"FRISK! WHAT'S WRONG? ARE YOU PERHAPS REALLY HURT AFTER ALL?" Papyrus frantically ran towards Snowdin. "WE NEED TO FIND SANS! HE'LL FIX YOU!"

"No! I don't want to go there!" Frisk screamed, stopping Papyrus immediately. "I don't want to go anywhere!" Frisk said, as the endless stream of tears flowed unrelenting from his eyes, cuddling to his chest-plate as if it was magically going to make whatever he was feeling go away.

Papyrus now had a concerned expression, yet he spoke not a word to him, afraid to trigger another outburst. "... CAN THE GREAT PAPYRUS HELP? I AM SUPPOSED TO HELP EVERYONE WHO NEEDS, SO NOT ONLY I WILL OBTAIN EXPERIENCE, BUT I'LL ALSO HELP YOU WITH YOUR PREDICAMENT!" Papyrus offered mustering all the excitement he could.

Still cuddling, Frisk gave some space so he could look at Papyrus. Breathing out a heavy sigh,he just cuddled again towards Papyrus.

"... I'm a bad kid..." Frisk muttered between hiccups in Papyrus cold chest-plate. It started to snow just then.

"WHAT? WHY WOULD YOU SAY THAT?" Papyrus said, dumbfounded by the statement. "YOU'RE NOT A BAD KID! SANS KEPT TALKING ABOUT YOU AND NOT-ASGORE ALL THE TIME WHILE I WAS SCOLDING HIM OVER BEING LATE!" He exclaimed with enthusiasm, taking his scarf and wiping Frisk's nose. The child in his arms was finally settling down, looking up with his still puffy eyes, despite still with some hiccups every now and then. "SANS TOLD ME HOW LADY-NOT-ASGORE LOVES YOU AND HOW SANS CARES FOR YOU!"

Sobbing a bit more, Frisk buried his head on Papyrus chest-plate once more. Papyrus noticing the snow falling on Frisk's head, pulled over his hoodie to cover him.

"But... Everyone takes care of me... But I didn't help anyone who ever needed me! Not Mom, not my sister, not anyone! I was too scared to do anything when she needed me and she got hurt!" Frisk went back to crying. "I... I...-"

"HEY!" Papyrus shushed the child by forcefully closing his lips with his gloved hand, stunning him for a while. "ASIDE FROM ME, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, EVERYONE MAKES MISTAKES, RIGHT?"

"But..."

"NO BUTS!" Papyrus yelled excited, before frowning a bit "... ACTUALLY, EVEN I MADE MISTAKES ONCE, HUMAN. IT WAS A DAY LIKE MANY OTHERS, BUT... WELL... SANS WAS BEING EVEN LAZIER THAN USUAL. I COULDN'T STAND IT. I WAS SHOUTING AND HE WAS SHRUGGING IT NONCHALANTLY WITH HIS PUNS AS USUAL, BUT... I PUSHED HIM OFF TOO MUCH..." Papyrus smile faltered for a second. Frisk was looking at him intently. "... I NEVER SAW HIM LOOK LIKE THAT BEFORE. HE WAS UPSET, BUT NEVER HAVE I SEEN HIM STAY **THAT** MUCH." Papyrus voice grew meek at the recollection. "I DON'T SUPPORT HIS LAZINESS, BUT I'LL NEVER PUSH HIM AGAIN WHEN HE NEEDS A BREAK... IT MAKES IT HARDER FOR CHECKING IF HE IS LAZY, BUT I CAN TELL HE APPRECIATES IT, EVEN IF HE DOES NOT MENTION IT."

Frisk was there just listening to Papyrus' story, wondering what could have happened between those two. He didn't knew them that well, but he was sure that they had a strong bond. He sniffled, not knowing whether from the cold or from crying too much.

"IT WAS NOT EASY, BUT WE WORKED IT OUT AND NOW WE ARE FINE AS WE ALWAYS HAVE BEEN!" Papyrus finished his point in a more cheerful note than before.

Frisk just stared blankly at him, unable to reply. He still felt horrible about what happened to his sister and couldn't find it in his heart to move on.

"But... I'm too afraid to do anything! I was afraid when you fought, I was afraid when mom fought... I was afraid when the flower fought... I was always afraid when she needed me the most!"

"SO BE MORE BRAVE!" Papyrus bluntly replied.

"What...?"

"IF FEAR KEEPS GETTING IN YOUR WAY, ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS FIND BRAVERY BIGGER THAN YOUR FEARS!" Papyrus was now holding Frisk properly, embracing the child, despite the initial struggle, given how thin his bones are. "ALL YOU NEED IS TO BELIEVE IN YOURSELF! IF YOU ARE AFRAID OF LOSING, THINK OF REASONS THAT WILL MAKE YOU WANT TO WIN! I WANT TO BE A MEMBER OF THE ROYAL GUARD, SO I GIVE MY BEST!"

Papyrus was no longer shouting at the top of his lungs. Were it not for his loud voice and noticeable enthusiasm almost all the time, one would even guess he'd be whispering softly. "IT'S HARD SOMETIMES... SINCE UNDYNE WON'T LET ME JOIN UNTIL I'M GOOD ENOUGH... NOT EVERYONE PUTS FAITH IN ME... BUT I CANNOT GIVE UP!" Papyrus pumped his fist in the air, as if challenging the universe on his speech. "I HAVE MY OWN DREAMS TO ACHIEVE! RECOGNITION! FRIENDS! ACKNOWLEDGEMENT THAT I'M SUPERB! I WON'T GIVE UP ON MY DREAMS SO EASILY!" Papyrus then calmed down once more, before letting Frisk on the floor and looking at them in the eye, crouching to do so.

"... MOREOVER... I HAVE THE BEST INCENTIVE OF THEM ALL TO DO SO..." Papyrus closed his eyes and sighed deeply. "MY BROTHER SANS."

Frisk, now no longer crying or sobbing, just paid close attention to him, intrigued by his now more serious and emotional side that surfaced.

"MY BROTHER IS... NOT VERY ENTHUSIASTIC... HE IS LAZY AND IS ALWAYS CRACKING JOKES WITH HIS SMILE, BUT... I KNOW HE ISN'T ALL RIGHT... HE IS REALLY GOOD PLAYING IT OFF. BUT WE'RE BROTHERS! AND I AM THE BEST BROTHER IN THE WORLD, SO OF COURSE I WOULD NOTICE! ... HE NEVER EXPLAINED WHY, SO IT MADE IT NEAR IMPOSSIBLE TO MAKE HIM FEEL BETTER WITH HIS OWN PROBLEMS."

The tall skeleton said somberly. However, it didn't take long before he stood up and went back to his excited demeanor. "SO, I DECIDED TO MAKE THE BEST THING ONLY A BROTHER AS GREAT AS I COULD EVER DO! I WOULD BECOME THE LIVING PROOF THAT YOU CAN DO ANYTHING IF YOU REALLY REALLY TRY! I THOUGHT THAT MAYBE, IF I ACHIEVED SOMETHING LIKE THIS, HE'D TRY A LITTLE HARDER FOR HIS OWN. THAT'S WHY I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS WILL BE A ROYAL GUARD! FOR ALL THE MONSTERS, FOR MY OWN RECOGNITION, AND ABOVE ALL ELSE, FOR THE LOVE FOR MY BROTHER, I **WILL** DO IT OR ELSE I'M NOT PAPYRUS, THE SKELETON! NYEH HEH HEH!" Papyrus monologued relentlessly with his trademark heroic pose with his cape flailing at the wind.

"SEE, HUMAN? WE ALL CAN ACHIEVE OUR GOALS. SURE, I DIDN'T REACH MINE YET, BUT I WILL SOON! IF YOU HAVE SOMETHING OR SOMEONE YOU HOLD DEAR, YOU'LL DO MUCH BETTER AND PERHAPS EVEN FACE CERTAIN DEATH WITH A SMILE FOR THE SAKE OF THOSE YOU LOVE! THAT'S BRAVERY!" Papyrus finished his thoughts, now standing against the light from the underground walls. It had no sunlight down there, but if there was, it probably came from his benevolent aura.

Frisk was baffled, just absorbing all the information that was thrown in his direction. It was truly heartfelt, causing him to think over what he said. Letting the words sink in, Frisk stood up, despite the hurting knee.

"I... I understand, Papyrus..." Frisk said, resolve increasing. Something was brewing inside him, but he was unsure of what it was. The same emotion that carried him to go after Toriel in the RUINS and stop her from destroying the door to the rest of the underground was there, but much stronger. Frisk felt like he could do anything. It felt good. He felt that, for the first time in his life, he'd have some control over things around him. And he'd carry on with this feeling. "I... I want to grow stronger! I will do my best as well!"

Papyrus now jumped in excitement upon hearing those words. "THAT'S THE SPIRIT HU-RISK!"

Giggling, he replied. "My name is 'Frisk'. Just 'Frisk'."

Papyrus shrugged and carried on. "ALLRIGHTY, FRISK! NOW WE CAN-"

"Papyrus, I need to do something." Frisk stated seriously, breaking Papyrus' momentum.

"WHAT IS IT HUMAN? DO YOU NEED TO USE THE BATHROOM? IF SO, WE NE-"

"No, it's not that. Not now, at least." Frisk smiled at Papyrus attitude. He may be strong, but he is goofy and kind-hearted. This gave him strength. "I need to find my little sister. She is outside and I need to find her." Frisk said, voice not faltering not even once. He wasn't sure why, but this emotion welling inside of him made him feel braver. Also, it could be all in his mind, but he was sure that his leg wasn't hurting anymore.

"OH! I SEE. DOES THAT MEAN THAT YOU'RE TOO BUSY TO BE CAPTURED?"

"Yes, Papyrus." Frisk replied, serious, but still smiling at his understanding.

"OH... NOW WHAT AM I GONNA DO? IT TOOK SO LONG TO FIND A HUMAN! NOT ONLY I WON'T BE ABLE TO SHOW SANS MY ACCOMPLISHMENT, BUT I WILL REMAIN STAGNANT IN MY NUMBER OF FRIENDSHIPS..." Papyrus said as he walked in circles, pondering when he'd find another human to capture.

Frisk fidgeted a bit, but nudged at Papyrus to draw his attention "Maybe... we could be friends." Frisk offered with open arms for a hug.

Papyrus jaw dropped with Frisk's proposal. After collecting his fallen jaw in the snow, he jumped around and picked up the child, spinning with him all over the snow passage.

"OH MY GOD, FRISK, THAT'S SO NICE OF YOU!" The overexcited skeleton said, blushing. "NO WONDER SANS AND GOAT-LADY LIKE YOU SO MUCH! LET'S GO! WE HAVE TO MEET THE-"

"FRISK! My child, are you okay?" Said Toriel, running as fast as she could. "Thank goodness you're ok, I had no idea what I would do if you were hurt or had been captured, I was so worried about you that you have no idea. Still, you coat has been slightly scrapped off. What happened? Oh, it doesn't matter, seems like you have been unharmed. We need to get your things back at Grillby's so we can rest and move on. Oh, Frisk, don't EVER run off like that again, you know how worried I get when you decide to adventure on your own, just like back in the RUINS when you'd go out to play with the Vegetoids and..." Toriel started scolding endlessly, shifting emotions from concern to anger to joy to exhaustion as she cycled though all of her thoughts.

"WILL EVERYONE PLEASE STOP INTERRUPTING THE GREAT PAPYRUS?" Said Papyrus, stomping on the ground. "THIS IS GETTING IRRITATING!"

Toriel, now stopping to pamper Frisk for half a second and then picking him up in her arms, looked down to Papyrus a bit surprised and apologized. "I'm sorry, Papyrus. I was so worried looking after Frisk that I didn't greet you properly." Toriel looked at him. Something looked different, as if a weight had just been lifted off from him.

"WHAT'S WRONG? ARE YOU TOO ASTONISHED BY MY BEAUTY TO CARRY ON WITH YOUR PLANS? I UNDERSTAND. IT HAPPENS OFTEN TO ME AS WELL." Said Papyrus, attempting to flex his bones.

Chuckling, Frisk just hugged Toriel back in her arms, making her hold him a bit closer. "Well, for now, let us get back to Snowdin and take a nice bath at the hotel. You must be freezing, specially after being here in the snow. Come, the journey will still be long, so we need to rest." Toriel put Frisk down and held his hand. "Are you coming with us?" Asked Toriel to Papyrus, who was still flexing. "I KNEW YOU'D WANT THE COMPANY OF THE GREAT PAPYRUS! FRISK! GOAT-LADY! LET'S GO!" Papyrus sprinted ahead, leaving Toriel and Frisk behind.

"My name is TORIEL, you know...?" Toriel sighed, walking with Frisk back to Snowdin.

Meanwhile, a lone figure stared at them in the distance, eye-sockets blank and void of expression.

"pap..."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here I am. Tests, college papers, my brother's birth... I've been through them all. Honestly, I'm just tired. Since my update schedule has been increased to a 3 week interval, I'll use one of them to FULLY RELAX. I'll make the following chapter in the remaining two. A man needs to rest, doesn't he? I'm really thankful for the feedback and for not giving up on me or my work!


	7. It's Raining Somewhere Else

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here it is. I'd like to apologize for the delay in the chapter and for not properly updating the story status. Real Life time constraints have hindered my progress immensely, so I apologize beforehand if this chapter is not particularly good compared to others.
> 
> Now that most assignments are over, I can focus more on my story once again. I apologize for the delay and I hope you can enjoy it nevertheless
> 
>  
> 
> DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN UNDERTALE OR IT'S CHARACTERS.

_Toriel rushed as fast as she could, while Sans was lagging behind, although he was surely uneasy about the outcome. An anxious boss monster mother was not something to be trifled with. Bad feeling or not, he could not let that carry on, not after sensing Papyrus preparing his special attack._

_'he never even managed to use it before... what could have possibly happened that all of a sudden he feels the need to use the 'bonetrousle'?'_

_"HURRY SANS! FRISK MIGHT BE IN DANGER!" Shouted Toriel, desperate enough to the point that she didn't care that everyone was looking at her. It was obvious, given how tall she was in comparison to other monsters. For her luck, none of the monsters recognized her or the ones that did were too intimidated by the tall sprinting figure to even consider stopping her._

_"i'm coming! ... geez pap, what's going on over there...?" Sans replied, muttering the last part as they were finally reaching the outskirts of town. Toriel was still sprinting, when Sans blocked Toriel's path coming from beneath the trees._

_"Sans? How did yo-" Was all Toriel could say before Sans shushed her and dragged her to between the woods so they wouldn't get too close to Frisk and Papyrus battle._

_"Sans, I understand your concern, but Frisk needs me and I'm not going to let you interrupt m-!" Toriel was interrupted by Frisk's scream. As she saw Papyrus' special attack, Toriel then rushed ahead, as Sans stared a bit and sighed and inwardly cringed on the possible outcomes._

_Toriel, however, stopped when she saw Papyrus coming over to the crying child and consoling him._

_"HUMAN...? WHAT'S WRONG? DO NOT WORRY! YOU ARE WITH THE GREAT PAPYRUS! YOU'RE SAFE FROM HARM!" Papyrus spoke as he approached Frisk._

_Toriel was about to burst in, but she felt a skeleton hand holding her. As she looked back, Sans pleaded with his eyes for her to not intervene. Despite knowing pretty well what he was asking for, she for once wanted to feign ignorance just for the sake of going to see how Frisk was. For her misfortune, despite being incredibly worried, she knew that Sans was trustworthy, so she retreated a bit further into the woods to not be seen._

_Toriel and Sans eavesdropped on Papyrus and Frisk for a bit, listening to Papyrus' enthusiasm as he tries to cheer Frisk up. Toriel was a bit skeptical at first, but shortly after, she was thoroughly impressed on how supportive he was. Above that, she was even glad how Papyrus turned out to be._

_"Your brother Papyrus is really good caretaker, Sans..." Toriel said as she allowed herself a meek smile._

_"wha? thank you, but the kid is still crying. what do you mean with-"_

_"Sans, I know Frisk is still crying. Still, his cry is different, now. While he is still in sorrow, he is no longer keeping it inside, instead he's just letting it out, seeking comfort in a new friend..." She continued. "I know a mother won't always hear everything a child has to say, but I'm just glad Papyrus is willing to help on whatever Frisk may not tell me. And for that I'm grateful."_

_"toriel... thanks for trusting my brother." Sans allowed a small sense of relief, as they continued to eavesdrop._

_"... SANS WAS BEING EVEN LAZIER THAN USUAL. I COULDN'T STAND IT..."_

_Sans shivered a bit at the triggered memories from what papyrus just said. Toriel sensed something, but didn't immediately understand what happened._

_"... I WAS SHOUTING AND HE WAS SHRUGGING IT NONCHALANTLY WITH HIS PUNS AS USUAL, BUT... I PUSHED HIM OFF TOO MUCH..." Papyrus smile was visibly weaker. Even though they were slightly distant, they noticed his demotivated stance and tone._

_"oh, pap... I already forgave you..." Sans whispered to himself. Toriel put a hand on his shoulder. "Are you all right, Sans?" She asked full of concern. Sans looked at her, now aware that he looked sorrowful, quickly shifting back his attention to his brother's dialogue._

_"... I NEVER SAW HIM LOOK LIKE THAT BEFORE. HE WAS UPSET, BUT NEVER HAVE I SEEN HIM STAY THAT MUCH. I DON'T SUPPORT HIS LAZINESS, BUT I'LL NEVER PUSH HIM AGAIN WHEN HE NEEDS A BREAK... IT MAKES IT HARDER FOR CHECKING IF HE IS LAZY, BUT I CAN TELL HE APPRECIATES IT, EVEN IF HE DOES NOT MENTION IT." Papyrus said, as Frisk was still observing him with his squinted and swollen eyes._

_Sans, observing the scene, sighed and just looked back at Toriel, who was still concerned. "i'll be ok. thanks, tori." Sans replied with a slightly more confident looking expression, as he averted his gaze back to his skeleton brother and the child in front of him, Toriel quickly following his action._

_"i love papyrus a lot."Sans said all of a sudden, causing Toriel to turn to him again. "he is probably the most innocent and kind living being to ever exist. and he seems to be growing up. he's just really amazing." Sans said, as a sigh followed it, they both listening to papyrus speech on his motivations to joining the royal guard._

_"... MOREOVER... I HAVE THE BEST INCENTIVE OF THEM ALL TO DO SO..." Papyrus said in the distance. "MY BROTHER SANS."_

_Upon hearing those words, Sans gaze went from pride to sheer confusion. 'what...?' was all rational thought he could gather. Toriel sensed his confusion, but decided against doing anything, as she herself did not understand what was going on._

_"MY BROTHER IS... NOT VERY ENTHUSIASTIC... HE IS LAZY AND IS ALWAYS CRACKING JOKES WITH A SMILE, BUT... I KNOW HE ISN'T ALL RIGHT..." Papyrus continued, as Sans breathing seemingly stopped._

_"HE IS REALLY GOOD PLAYING IT OFF, BUT WE'RE BROTHERS! AND I AM THE BEST BROTHER IN THE WORLD, SO OF COURSE I WOULD NOTICE! ... HE NEVER EXPLAINED WHY, SO IT MADE IT NEAR IMPOSSIBLE TO MAKE HIM FEEL BETTER WITH HIS OWN PROBLEMS."_

_"he knows...?" Sans muttered in silence, voice filled with worry._

_Papyrus struck a pose, full of pride. "SO, I DECIDED TO MAKE THE BEST THING ONLY A BROTHER AS GREAT AS I COULD EVER DO! I WOULD BECOME THE LIVING PROOF THAT YOU CAN DO ANYTHING IF YOU REALLY REALLY TRY! I THOUGHT THAT MAYBE, IF I ACHIEVED SOMETHING LIKE THIS, HE'D TRY A LITTLE HARDER FOR HIS OWN. THAT'S WHY I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS WILL BE A ROYAL GUARD! FOR ALL THE MONSTERS, FOR MY OWN RECOGNITION, AND ABOVE ALL ELSE, FOR THE LOVE FOR MY BROTHER, I WILL DO IT OR ELSE I'M NOT PAPYRUS, THE SKELETON! NYEH HEH HEH!"_

_Sans was visibly shaken. Eye-sockets completely black and completely motionless, Sans worried Toriel with his static stance._

_"Sans... Can I help you in some way...?" Toriel's voice was meek. She knew that there was a lot that Sans was hiding, but wasn't close enough to pry into his problems. "Maybe I could-"_

_"perhaps it's better if you went ahead and talked to frisk. he needs you, doesn't he? i'll be back for dinner..." Sans interrupted. Toriel flinched a bit from the abrupt comment asking her to leave, but she understood his desire for privacy. Taking a deep breath and warming up a bit, she ran towards the fallen child._

_"FRISK! My child, are you okay?" Toriel shouted as she approached Papyrus and Frisk, hugging the child as Papyrus got infuriated for being interrupted once again._

_Sans was in complete shock. Not only Toriel now knows he's not well, but she overheard it from Papyrus, the one person that Sans wanted to make sure everything was fine. Instead, he was the one that was the most worried. Moreover, working hard for Sans' sake._

_Toriel, Papyrus and Frisk were talking and laughing together, but their words merely echoed without any meaning to the mortified hooded skeleton. They went ahead, while Sans just stared blankly where they were, absorbed in thought._

_"pap..." Sans whispered, before shaking his head and staring ahead. "thanks, bro..." He started talking alone, as he looked at Waterfall with a hollow expression, something forming in his mind. "guess i'll have to make sure my precious brother's effort don't go to waste, won't i?" Sans said, before slowly walking towards the mist._

_"time to visit my undesirable 'friend'." Sans said, vanishing in the fog._

* * *

She had just woken up. Not yet accustomed to the place, she sat on the bed slowly, cautiously absorbing the scenario. The room was just like it was before she took a nap: Dark blue colored, with some plain, yet charming furniture, the drapes were drawn in order to block any light that may be reflected from the sparkly gems in the ceiling, since despite the underground not having sunlight, it was awfully disturbing if you were trying to sleep.

After taking in her location, she stepped off her bed, only to shortly recoil after touching the cold floor bare-feet. Looking around, she stretched her tiny legs, putting on her fluffy pink slippers. Still rubbing her eyes, she went downstairs only to find Shyren cleaning the house, with no sign of her "body". She was humming softly a song she has never heard. Being tone deaf, Shyren's singing was not the best, but no one could take away the passion she put whenever she sang.

"Hello!" The little girl greeted as she grew more awake. Startled from being heard singing, she quickly shut up and just waved shyly back at her.

" ...ave a ...ice ..ap?" Shyren's voice was nothing more but a soft whisper, almost inaudible.

"What didju say? Speek loud!" The no longer sleepy girl got excited and prompted shyren to speak louder.

"... Did you have a nice nap...?" Shyren fidgeted a bit before repeating her sentence, although just barely loud enough to be heard.

"Yeh! I dweamed that I was a buttewfly!" The little girl replied, mimicking the motions of a said insect, although Shyren had no idea of what animal she was talking about, as there were not many insects in the Underground, specially the surface dwellers. Regardless, Shyren felt no need to call her out on it, as it would only remind her that she was away from her real home.

"That's wonderful..." Shyren said, floating around a bit closer and patting her long silky hair. The little girl hummed as she let herself be pampered by the blue haired floating fish. Claire looked at the scene and wondered how neither sides actually found strange how contrasting each other's species and situations were. 'guess they are too naive to fully understand how unnatural this situation is.' Claire shrugged as she went back to the kitchen to bring her baked goods.

"Hey guys, snack is ready!" Claire chimed in the kitchen, causing both Shyren and the small human to turn their attention to the source of the new-found smell.

"...bread-rolls..." Shyren whispered as she happily floated away to the kitchen. The infant also followed her in a hastened pace, almost stumbling over her own legs, but fortunately not tripping at any moment.

They approached the kitchen. As the cheerful clam woman took the baked goods and some jam, she served them on the table. Among the snacks, there were bread-rolls, cornbread and a croissant look alike, despite being blue. Claire took out of the oven a burnt pastry, frowning in disappointment. Shyren meekly looked away while the kid just flat out covered her mouth, expressing her aversion to Claire's final meal.

"I'm sorry! I'm not good at making sweets!" Claire apologized, closing her shell in rage. "mph mmmmmph humph!" She yelled, although being muffled by her own shell made the young child to tilt her head in confusion. Shyren floated above Claire and rested on her head, softly patting it with her fins. "Don't say that... You're really good at baking... You just need more practice and you'll be able to make wonderful sweets..." Shyren consoled her, as Claire was still shut from embarrassment and frustration.

The little girl approached her and hugged Claire, attempting to comfort her. She opened up her shell and was greeted by a mildly concerned facing an innocent smiling expression with eyes covered through her bangs. Upon seeing that, She couldn't help but smile back. "...Thank you, darling. You're too sweet, did you know that? A lot sweeter than my apple pie, at least." Claire said, bopping her nose, causing the girl to giggle and ask to be carried. She complied and picked the child in her arms. 'It'd be nice to live like this. Sure, it's far from perfect, but at least, for now, I can picture us living together as we are. Me, Shyren and S-'

Claire's thoughts were interrupted by the loud stomping of metal armor. Upon hearing it, she quickly, yet still carefully placed the child back on the floor. "Shyren, take her back to her room."

Nodding, Shyren gently nudged the now confused kid back upstairs. Strong knocking almost takes down the door. Sighing, Claire opens the door and is greeted with a tall, imposing figure. It was fully armored, with a strong aura of determination and a strong sense of justice. The only thing that could identify this armored soldier from the others was the noticeable red ponytail coming from the helm. A raspy and intense sounding voice echoed from the armor.

"HEY! Claire! Still living with Shyren, I see. How have you been?" The armored figure said, removed the helm and revealing her fish like features, the most noticeable ones being her blue skin, scales and her razor sharp teeth.

"Hi Undyne. I'm fine, thank you." Greeted Claire, holding in her frustration. As much as she liked Undyne, she didn't want her to be there, not right now, when SHE could be found out. "What brings you here?"

"Nothing much." Undyne replied with her usual smile, before approaching and whispering to Claire. "Hey, did you see anyone suspicious or... 'different'... around here?"

Claire knew immediately what Undyne was talking about. "No, I did not. Why are you asking though? Did you find any new leads?" She asked, hoping to avert Undyne's attention from her house.

"Yes, actually." Undyne closed her fist and pumped it angrily. "I received an anonymous letter of a witness claiming that they found out of a human here in the underground. Worse yet, that they have been hiding for almost two months!" Undyne grumbled a bit, before taking out the letter to show her. "According to it, they assumed that they had seen a human days ago, but could not confirm. Seems like they were scared of being charged of false claim..." Undyne sighed, before growing fierce again. "Those humans... I'll PERSONALLY end them and deliver their SOUL to Asgore. Then... All monsters will be free!" Undyne said, becoming incredibly flared up, as Claire tried to hide her distress.

"You look worried, Claire." Undyne said, making Claire flinch at her words, afraid of being exposed. "I see... You oughta be worried about 'what if I can't find the human?'." Claire slowly breathed out, not to look too tense, as she felt relief on Undyne not being able to pick up on her subtleties. "Don't worry, C. I know they probably were well hidden, given how long they have been for now, but today I lost contact with the Dog units, when no one reported in Snowdin, so I have all the reasons to believe that the human is coming to waterfall, given that the RUINS are sealed since forever." Undyne said a bit grief struck, but growing more passionate by the second. "So I'll get 'em! I'll make them pay for what they did!" She then calmed down a bit and looked away. "And talking about that..." Undyne put her helm on. "I have to hurry up so I don't miss my opportunities to ambush them at the choke-points. See ya!" Undyne waved goodbye before sprinting ahead, despite the obviously bulky armor.

Claire finally started to relax as the tension had ended. Before going inside, she was met with a golden flower popping up.

"Claire! You have NO IDEA how close that was! How did you-"

"The girl... she's human, right?" She interrupted Flowey's sentence, staggering his already poor stance.

Flowey did not reply, only looking away from her. He did not take in account that Undyne would go asking all citizens of waterfall if anyone had seen a human, let alone that the first one she'd visit would be the one monster he entrusted to look after his "insurance". Now he'd have to take in account what Claire would do, which was incredibly hard. Through what felt like one million resets, seldom he met her, so even after resetting enough times to lose count, he could not accurately predict her and her changes in the world. He barely understood HOW she did all that.

"I won't ask the specific reason for why it should be ME the one who look after her." Claire said, while Flowey was still looking away. "You obviously were not expecting that I'd know what a human looks like, that much was given. However, I still need to thank you for it." She continued, causing Flowey to look at her in confusion. "You probably care for this girl, so looked for someone who'd not give her to the royal guard. Thank you for trusting me in this task." Claire smiled as her eyes glimmered a bit. Flowey flinched upon hearing those words, but faked a smile nevertheless.

"You're welcome, Claire. I still wonder though... why do you look after her? I know it's a child, but it's a HUMAN child." He asked. Claire lifted her eyebrow, questioning, prompting him to continue.

"I mean, I'm extremely grateful, as anyone else would have turned her in and that would be too horrible to my poor heart..." Flowey faked being teary eyed as he crafted his pseudo emotional dialogue.

Claire thought for a while before replying. "I think... it has to do with the fact that I don't care who or what they are. I just want everyone to be happy!" Claire said. Flowey stared at her blankly for a few seconds, registering what she just said.

"That's wonderful! You really are kind hearted! I'm glad I made the right choice in asking you. Well, Claire... I have to go now. I have other affairs to look into. Good bye!"

"Bye bye, Flowey!" Claire waved slowly as Flowey buried himself beneath the earth again.

* * *

A couple of rooms ahead, Flowey popped up again. " **CARING FOR HER? DON'T MAKE ME LAUGH!** WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT? HOW DOES **SHE** KNOWS ABOUT HUMANS? Argh!" Flowey looked from one side to another, as being a flower would limit him in the capacity of walking from one side to the other. "Seems like Undyne has a bond with Claire, just enough to change the course of action. I should be more careful when leaving hints to other monsters, else they might become too unpredictable... I need to know HOW to stop the brat... I wonder what should I-"

"there you are." A calm, deep voice called him.

Flowey's train of thought was broken when he was nearly plucked off the ground. The surprise of it made him yell, gripping to the earth as hard as his roots possibly could, afraid of what just happened.

"WHAT THE HELL!? WHAT'S GOING ON?!" Flowey shouted desperate.

"sheesh, pipe down, weed. you're making a much bigger fuss than i expected."

Flowey was still struggling, but he calmed down a bit when he finally recognized the voice. He slowly turned around to face the blue coated skeleton holding him

"Er... who are yo-?"

"cut the act, 'sunshine'. there is no one else around and we both know that both of us still remember what happened last reset."

Flowey cringed a little at being reminded of it, sighing afterwards, trying to relax. "Ok, Sans, you win. What do you want? I didn't do anything about THAT, if that's why you're here." Flowey now looked not startled, but just angry. "I wasn't stupid enough to mess with you back there and I value my life, as odd as it seems. I get it, you don't want to risk messing things up anymore." Flowey frowned and turned away.

Sans closed his eyes for a second before looking at the golden flower in his hand. "good to see you know not to mess with me. now, i need your help precisely to change everything."

Flowey looked back in disbelief and extreme confusion. "WHAT? **AFTER ALL THE THREATENING? AFTER YOU NEARLY MURDERING ME OVER EVEN TRYING TO DO SOMETHING,** ** _NOW_** **YOU WANT MY HELP? YOU HYPOCRITICAL TRASH BA** -" Flowey lashed on, but was quickly pulled much stronger than before.

"i know what i said and i know why i said it." Sans eyes were pitch black and his tone was serious. Flowey began cowering in his hand. "i stopped you before because you wanted to be an irresponsible and emotive little flower that wants to do whatever it wants and believe that it is above everyone else, while **that guy** has way too much power over here." Sans retaliated, while Flowey hid himself in fear and mild embarassment. " don't get me wrong, i'm not here begging you for help. i don't even need your help. you have reached near god like levels of power and yet i stopped you every single time. i'm not calling you because 'i can't do it without you', i'm here telling you to either help or don't get in my way. don't be so entitled just because you once you could reset so you could experiment everything until you found the right answer. **sometimes one chance is all you get, so you can't mess up.** do you understand now why i told you to stop acting like a spoilt rotten weed?"

Flowey was horrified, slowly nodding. "W-well, w-what should we do then?" Flowey said, trying to look confident again, cursing himself for stuttering. His morale with Sans grew lower and lower each encounter.

"well, this time, we are not going to just rebel like a bunch of immature kids and ask the first stranger for help." Sans said with a scowl, despite still being smiling, which only unnerved Flowey even more. "this time, we are going to think through our actions more carefully and go straight to **him**." He finished with a smirk.

Flowey's jaw had dropped, completely stunned with the idea. "WHAT? OK, THAT'S IT. ALL THAT POWER DROVE YOU INSANE!" Flowey shouted without restraint, struggling once again in the bony hand that held him in his place. " ** _YOU_** **WANT TO TRY TAKING DOWN THE ONE THAT CONTROLS THIS PLACE?** Have you really lost whatever was left of your mind?"

Sans shrugged at the insults and the shouting. "listen up, flowey. there is a reason why you never beat me. it's because this lazy bag of bones is much better than you at facing things much stronger than me." Sans replied nonchalantly, making Flowey sulk a bit. "we'll do it like this..."

* * *

"WHERE IS SANS? THE SPAGHETTI IS GOING TO GET COLD!" Papyrus shouted, displeased at his brother's absence. Meanwhile, cold plates of unedible spaghetti were placed around the table, while Frisk stared at it in fear and Toriel smiled, while also fearing for their health.


	8. Danger Mystery

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one was rough. I have 4 college assignments + tests + daily things to look after. Thankfully, I just barely managed to do it. Here it is. Hope it's an enjoyable experience as usual.
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own Undertale nor probably ever will.

"STOP RIGHT THERE, FRISK!" Shouted papyrus, running towards Frisk.

"Nooooooooo!" Exclaimed the child as he sprinted away from the tall skeleton. Papyrus was fast, but Frisk was quite nimble, making it almost impossible to Papyrus to catch him.

"HOLD STILL SO I CAN CAPTURE YOU!" Papyrus yelled, not showing any signs of fatigue. Frisk was not planning on giving up either. Frisk taunted in between sprints by slowing down to the point of almost being caught only to dash away at the last second. "WHY ARE 'FRISK'S SO QUICK?" The humorously armoured skeleton complained.

Frisk ran away from Papyrus as fast as he could. For his miscalculations, however, one last time after feigning being unaware of Papyrus, Papyrus actually caught him and held him up.

"GOT YOU, FRISK!" Papyrus lifted Frisk victoriously, as if the child was a trophy or an achievement. "NOW..."

"IT'S YOUR TURN! CATCH ME IF YOU CAN! WHICH YOU CANNOT, BECAUSE I AM THE GREAT PAPYRUS!" Papyrus let go of Frisk and ran away. As soon as Frisk's feet touched the snow, he ran away to catch his goofy skeleton friend. "You may be the great Papyrus, but I am: The Mighty Frisk! And I WILL catch you!" He shouted back in response.

"Children! Be careful not to trip!" Shouted Toriel in the distance, walking alongside Sans. Despite the look of concern she threw in their direction, she seemed content overall. Sans kept his laidback demeanour, smiling aloof to his surroundings as he also looked at his brother and the kid.

"I'M NO LONGER A CHILD, MISS-GOAT-LIKE-ASGORE-BUT-NOT-QUITE-ASGORE-AS-YOU-DON'T-HAVE-A-BEARD! I'M GOING TO BE A ROYAL GUARD AND THE ROYAL GUARDS DO NOT HAVE A PLACE FOR KIDS!" Papyrus stopped running and looked at the boss monster, unknowingly letting Frisk take him down with a hug-tackle as they rolled on the ground. "NYEEEEH! UNDYNE WOULD BE DISPLEASED WITH MY PERFORMANCE! I FORGOT ABOUT MY OPPONENT!"

"...I'm not a goat..." Toriel muttered to herself as Sans' eyes narrowed a bit. "so… you're not a kid anymore, paps?"

"OF COURSE NOT, SANS! I AM A RESPONSIBLE, COMPETENT AND MATURE ADULT!" Papyrus said, while feigning struggle to break free from the hyper active kid overwhelming him.

Sans smile shifted just so barely that one would almost not notice, but it went from a calmer to a more joking smile. "so i guess you don't need me to read you bedtime stories anymore, now do you?"

Papyrus got up, holding Frisk so he'd not fall from his abrupt gesture. "WHAT? WHAT DOES THAT HAS ANYTHING TO DO WITH BEING AN ADULT?" He exclaimed, looking quite worried.

"the thing, pap, is that adults usually don't have bedtime stories read to them. they only read them for kids, such as how Toriel does to Frisk." Sans motioned to Toriel, who was slightly frowning at Sans tease, although she was also holding back her chuckles.

"WHAT?!? SO FOR ME TO BE AN ADULT, I CANNOT HAVE BEDTIME STORIES?" Papyrus frowned in disappointment. Looking at the child in his hands, Papyrus quickly smiled again and posed dramatically after putting Frisk down. "IT'S ALL RIGHT! ALL I HAVE TO DO IS TO BORROW FRISK SO I CAN READ HIM BEDTIME STORIES! GENIUS! ALL SKILLFULLY PLANNED BY THE GREAT PAPYRUS!"

Toriel raised her eyebrow in question, but smiled nevertheless at the thought. "It's all right, Papyrus. You can read some bedtime stories for Frisk every once in a while." Toriel said to the tall skeleton, who was seemingly so full of himself he forgot about everyone around him.

"OH, THAT DOES MAKE EVERYTHING EASIER! THANKS, MISS BOSS MONSTER!" Papyrus thanked as he and Frisk went back to run after Frisk challenged Papyrus for a race.

"They don't ever stop, now do they, Sans?" Toriel looked at Sans, who was calmly looking at the scene ahead of them. "nope. and i guess i prefer it this way." Sans commented to Toriel.

Toriel smiled at Frisk running away with Papyrus scarf as they yelled frantically at the path ahead of them. “So do I.”

* * *

 

After some more walking, they finally reached Waterfall. The place had a mixture of dark blue and purple, giving a genuine cave feeling, unlike the quaint Snowdin. With the flowing river besides them and the damp atmosphere, Toriel already made Frisk take off his winter coat and wear a transparent raincoat with waterproof boots. Frisk and Papyrus had finally calmed down after being scolded for almost breaking someone’s window in Snowdin.

Ahead in the distance, a small yellow monster kid wearing a striped shirt was idling as an orange fish monster muttered to himself near a tall blue flower. Close to both monsters was an empty sentry station with a snowy roof and a door behind it.

“Mom, how come that has snow here?” Frisk beckoned to Toriel, who just looked worried. “Oh no…” Toriel muttered with a concerned frown. The monster kid was one of the witnesses that Toriel paid no mind when openly running towards Frisk in Snowdin.

“something wrong?” Asked Sans, lifting an eyebrow as Frisk and Papyrus halted when they noticed Toriel staying behind.

Toriel looked hopelessly at the monster some meters ahead. She didn’t want to ask for help, no matter how much she needed it. She slightly opened her mouth, but not a sound came out of it. “WHAT’S WRONG, MISSRIEL? WHAT BOTHERS YOU?” Asked Papyrus before whispering to Sans. “DID I GET IT RIGHT?”. Sans looked at his brother, chuckling a bit. “not quite. you’re getting closer, though.” He replied. Looking ahead, he noticed the monsters and thought for a bit before turning around again. “i can help with that.” Sans answered the unspoken request.

Toriel was a bit startled, but quickly understood what he meant. “How are you going to-?”

“i know a shortcut. you’ll just have to promise me that you’ll do as i say, ok?” Sans finished, putting his hands back in his pockets.

“But what of Frisk?” She immediately replied.

“I CAN LOOK AFTER FRISK, ISN’T THAT RIGHT?” Papyrus replied. Frisk nodded as to confirm his skeleton partner’s suggestion.

Toriel was a bit uneasy, but finding no other option, she nodded and they walked on the opposite direction. “no questions asked.” Sans bluntly said as Toriel opened her mouth, closing it just as quickly. “by the way…” Sans said holding out his hand. “close your eyes. no peeking.”

“Sans!” Toriel protested.

“usually, i wouldn’t ask you to do anything, but given my circumstances, i need you to comply, or else i won’t be able to use my shortcut. your call.”

Toriel frowned disapproving at Sans, who was looking away, not wanting to meet her glare.

“you know i wouldn’t do anything you wouldn’t like.” Sans tried to persuade, looking back at her. Toriel finally gave up and closed her eyes as she held his hand and they walked away. “pap! go ahead with frisk! i’ll see you up ahead!” Shouted Sans before not being seen again beneath the mist separating Snowdin and Waterfall.

Frisk stared towards the shrinking figure of Toriel in the distance, when Papyrus promptly took his hand and turned him around, once again looking forward in their path. “DO NOT WORRY, FRISK. SANS IS PROBABLY GOING TO TAKE HER THROUGH HIS SHORTCUTS AND PROBABLY THEY’LL END UP AHEAD OF US, DESPITE ONLY HAVING ONE PHYSICAL PASSAGE TO OUR DESTINATION!” Papyrus replied, as they started walking to their path ahead.

“… How does that work?” Frisk asked, curious as he looked around and noticed the large hallway structure. He did not see another passage during his short stay in Snowdin, so he was obviously confused.

“OH, FRISK. DO YOU NOT SEE? IT’S VERY SIMPLE!” Papyrus exclaimed, staring deeply at Frisk’s squinted eyes. “I HAVE NO IDEA!” The skeleton finished his thought, causing Frisk to shrug, despite the remaining confusion. ‘Weird…’ Frisk thought to himself before arriving near the sentry station.

“Oh, Hello!” The yellow monster looked at Frisk, who turned around to greet him. Despite being a kid, the monster was still slightly taller and probably older than Frisk, causing him some mild discomfort, also influenced by the spikes prodding out of his back. “I’m Monster Kid! You’re a kid too, aren’t you?” Monster Kid continued. “I noticed that because of your stripped shirt!”

Frisk tilted his head slightly. “Your ‘name’ is ‘Monster Kid’?” The child asked.

Monster Kid lowered his head a bit, averting his gaze. “Well…-”

“OF COURSE HE IS NOT CALLED ‘MONSTER KID’!” Papyrus interrupted, putting his hand in his chest. “US ROYAL GUARDS KNOW THE NAME OF ALL CITIZENS OF THEIR RESPECTIVE GUARDING AREA. YOU’RE FROM SNOWDIN, SO I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, PERFECTLY RECALL YOUR NAME!” Papyrus rambled as Monster Kid became more distressed and Frisk giggled in amusement. “YOUR NAME IS J-”

“My name is Monster Kid!” Monster kid quickly shouted, causing Frisk recoil besides him and Papyrus to look down to meet his eyes.

“NO, IT’S NOT!” Papyrus looked fierce. “I’VE ALREADY GOT ONE CITIZEN’S NAME WRONG, SO I’M NOT MAKING THE SAME MISTAKE AGAIN! YOUR NAME IS NOT ‘MONSTER KID’, YOUR NAME IS JEF-’

“It’s not anymore! Now I’m Monster Kid!” Monster kid anxiously replied. Frisk was confused by it, but just ignored it. “Pft… Undyne would have just let it go…” The short yellow monster muttered, not escaping Papyrus acute hearing, despite the skeleton’s lack of ears.

“OH, YES! SPEAKING OF UNDYNE, I’M SUPPOSED TO MEET HER! SHE’S SUPPOSED TO BE RIGHT OVER THAT ROCKY FORMATION! FRISK, BE A GOOD HU… HU…” Papyrus stopped himself, remembering what Sans told him before they departed.

* * *

 

_“ok paps. we are going to tag along frisk and toriel. so, if you want to come, you’ll have to do follow a few conditions, ok?” Sans explained._

_“FRISK AND WHO?” Asked the confused skeleton._

_Sans smiled blankly for a second before replying. “frisk and the lady who looks after him. you could consider her frisk’s mother.” The older brother explained cautiously._

_“OH, I SEE!” Papyrus beamed for a second, before frowning in confusion. “…WHAT OF IT?”_

_“the thing is: frisk’s mom is really protective of him, so you need to promise two things in order to come with us.” Sans answered in his usual laidback tone, lifting his hand and raising a finger. “first: that you’ll help us look after frisk whenever he may need.”_

_“OH, THAT’S EASY! I CAN PRACTICE BEING A GUARD BY BEING A BODYGUARD WHILE I’M NOT A ROYAL GUARD!” Papyrus said enthusiastically. “WHAT ELSE?”_

_Sans raised another finger in his hand. “second: that you will **not** tell anyone that frisk is a human. toriel doesn’t want him to around the royal guards, and the more people know that he is human, the higher the chances of the royal guard to know.” The short skeleton finished explaining._

_“OH… WHY CAN’T THE ROYAL GUARD KNOW? IF WE EXPLAINED THE SITUATION, MAYBE THEY COULD EVEN HELP US!” Papyrus questioned._

_Sans averted his gaze for a second before looking back at Papyrus. “she said that she doesn’t want the guards to be distracted from their duty if we can do it ourselves. as a matter of fact… you could use this opportunity to practice escorting humans to the king by yourself without help, so that’s a bonus.” Sans explained, winking at his brother._

_“BRILLIANT IDEA SANS! OH, IF ONLY YOU’D PUT AS MUCH EFFORT ON YOUR WORK AS YOU DO ON YOUR IDEAS AND YOUR PUNS…!” Papyrus sighed._

_Sans looked at him and smirked a bit. “yeah… that would be nice, maybe. i suppose that would be a sight… ‘tibia’ mused at.”_

_“SANS!!!!” Papyrus yelled at Sans one last time before going to his room and packing his things._

* * *

 

“…. HU… HU…. HU **MBLE** AND OBEDIENT CHILD AND STAY WITH MONSTER KID WHILE I GO TALK TO HER!” Papyrus said, sprinting ahead and upwards, floating above the wall.

Monster Kid and Frisk stared at Papyrus in awe.

“Cool!” The armless monster said, breaking the silence. Frisk was still staring where Papyrus went, n0t fully understanding what the five minutes of Papyrus mumbling “hu” were supposed to mean. Deciding he wouldn’t figure out the comically unpredictable skeleton, he shrugged and focused back on the now already distant yellow figure.

“Hey! Wait!” Frisk shouted, running towards Monster Kid. Looking back, Monster Kid smiled and waited until Frisk caught up to him. “Where are you going? We’re supposed to wait for Papyrus!” Frisk said, quickly catching his breath.

“No… YOU’RE supposed to stay with ME!” Monster Kid said matter-of-factly. “And _I_ want to see Undyne! Don’t you want to as well?” The excited child asked.

Frisk looked a bit uneasy with the idea. He had no idea who “Undyne” was, but he didn’t want to be left alone. “Okay…” He half-heartedly agreed.

“Oh, cheer up! She is _AWESOME_! You’ll see! Come on!” Monster Kid piped up and sprinted ahead and Frisk followed him right behind, until Monster Kid tripped and fell on his face, making Frisk stop and look at the fallen figure. Before he had a chance to even try to get up, Frisk held him by the torso and clumsily lifted him up and he was standing once again.

“Thanks. Now, let’s go!” The armless monster said, charging once more with Frisk after him.

Monster Kid ran ahead, when Frisk got distracted while crossing the waterfall. A lonely blue flower by the end of the bridge below sparkled in the dim light of the celling crystals. Beckoned to find it, he backtracked and went down to the bridge. It was a high fall, intimidating Frisk, but something compelled him to go and see it from closer. He cautiously walked through it, despite the seemingly endless pit beneath him. Upon approaching the flower, he heard subtle noises. Putting his ear close, part of the whispering became more discernible.

“………”

“I told you not to play over here. We’ve looked everywhere and have not found it. What do you want me to do?” A woman’s voice was heard.

“……er…” Another voice whispered inaudibly.

“Yes, I can guess it’s somewhere in the water, but even after looking all over the place, we have not found it! You’ll have to content yourself with not having being washed away. Don’t do it ever again, okay? You almost made me freak out!” The first voice shouted.

“……………………..”

“I’m sorry for yelling. Here, let us take care of your scrapped knee and go home. I’ll bake a croissant for you.” The first voice said apologetically.

“....”

“Yes, my dear, you can have the chocolate croissant.” The voice said, as it became more distant.

….

“Frisk!”

Frisk looked up as he saw Monster Kid near the waterfall calling for him.

“What are you doing down there? Come on! I found Papyrus! Undyne should be arriving soon! Come on!” He shouted before dashing away. Frisk quickly, yet just as cautiously trailed back from the bridge and ran after Monster Kid.

They quickly crossed the water stream and found themselves looking at Papyrus alone in the cliff above.

“We still have time! Quick! Undyne doesn’t like kids nearby when she’s patrolling! Let’s hide in the grass!” Monster kid motioned with his head to the grass patch. Both kids quickly ran towards it and hid themselves beneath the leaves.

They stood there quietly for a couple of minutes. Frisk was quickly getting bored and yawned a bit. Just before he nodded off, however, loud metallic clanking was heard in the distance approaching them. Frisk woke up due to the fright and then looked up to see what was coming.

A tall figure stood in the shadows, standing in front of Papyrus. A hoarse voice, possibly distorted by the helmet spoke:

“Hi Papyrus.” She greeted him.

“HELLO UNDYNE! WHAT A WONDERFUL DAY IT IS TODAY, ISN’T THAT RIGHT?” He replied excitedly.

“Don’t you always say that whenever you’re training?” She asked wincing a bit. Papyrus opened his mouth to reply, only for Undyne to hold her hand up shushing him. “Yes, yes to do. I know. It was a rhetorical question.” Papyrus deflated a bit, although he was still smiling.

“Never mind… Now, remember what I told you? Did you find any humans?” Frisk flinched upon hearing those words. “The dog units didn’t report back, so I asked you and your brother to look after humans. So…” Undyne clenched her fist loudly due to her armour. “… did you find any?”

Papyrus averted his gaze and sweated a bit. “WELL… WE FOUND NO ONE IN SNODIN, NO HUMANS THERE. NOPE. NOT A SINGLE SURFACE CREATURE.” Papyrus replied nervously. Frisk ducked even further beneath the grass, afraid of being found.

“’K then… I’ll see you around.” Undyne said before Papyrus turned around and walked away. As she was leaving, Monster Kid accidentally rustled beneath the grass, causing Undyne to approach, leaving the shadows. The tall armoured figure was menacing looking and bore incredible weight. Her calm, yet firm stomps frightened Frisk beyond measure, with her being much burlier and scarier than he imagined, especially with her helmet looking like a beast or some other frightening thing straight from his nightmares. As she looked over searching for the source of the noise, Frisk was terrified as he saw her spawn a spear out of thin air and aim at the grass patch. Frisk buried himself even deeper than before, hoping with everything he had that Undyne wouldn’t come after him. To his fortune, after a few more seconds scanning the path below her, she stored her spear and slowly walked away, leaving nothing but her menacing presence behind.

“WOW! Isn’t she amazing or what?” Monster kid hopped out of the grass patch excitedly. “Man, I’d hate to be a human being sought out by her! They’d be DESTROYED!” Monster kid went on rambling about Undyne’s strength and other feats, but Frisk heard none of them. He was still lying down, immobile and frightened for life.

“Sis… Mom…” he muttered in silence as Monster Kid played on his own, oblivious to Frisk’s breakdown.


	9. <END OF THE LINE>

4th of January of 2017 Update

 

Happy new year.

 

I know what I said. I know that I promised. But I've set the bar too high.

 

I have literally no interest in continuing this story anymore. Can't fool myself. It's not depression, it's not college, it's not anything. I just can't like this story anymore. The premise was interesting when I first created its concept, but now it just feels flat out silly and boring to me. I want to move on to other projects I WANT to write. I've grown tired of AUs, and writing one is not exciting at all to me.

 

If you do wish to know how it would have ended up, PM me. I still got most sketches for the remaining chapters.

 

Sorry to disappoint. Guess I'm not the author you were looking for. My style and ambitions changed from the conception of this story to the current day.

 

Hope you have a wonderful life.


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